IC-NRLF 


IN  BROOK 
AND  BAYOU 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


PRESENTED  BY 

PROF.  CHARLES  A.  KOFOID  AND 
MRS.  PRUDENCE  W.  KOFOID 


CHART  I. 


Arcellae— Fairy  Shrimp. 


APPLE  TONS'   HOME  READING   BOOKS 


IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU 


OR,  LIFE  IN  THE  STILL  WATERS 


BY 

CLARA   KERN    BAYLISS 


He  liveth  best  who  loveth  best 
All  things,  both  great  and  small 


NEW  YORK  AND   LONDON 

D.    APPLETON    AND    COMPANY 

1912 


COPYRIGHT,  1897, 
BY  D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY. 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


&6I 


INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  HOME  BEADING 
BOOK  SEKIES  BY  THE  EDITOR 


THE  new  education  takes  two  important  direc- 
tions— one  of  these  is  toward  original  observation, 
requiring  the  pupil  to  test  and  verify  what  is  taught 
him  at  school  by  his  own  experiments.  The  infor- 
mation that  he  learns  from  books  or  hears  from  his 
teacher's  lips  must  be  assimilated  by  incorporating  it 
with  his  own  experience. 

The  other  direction  pointed  out  by  the  new  edu- 
cation is  systematic  home  reading.  It  forms  a  part  of 
school  extension  of  all  kinds.  The  so-called  "  Univer- 
sity Extension  "  that  originated  at  Cambridge  and  Ox- 
ford has  as  its  chief  feature  the  aid  of  home  reading  by 
lectures  and  round-table  discussions,  led  or  conducted 
by  experts  who  also  lay  out  the  course  of  reading. 
The  Chautauquan  movement  in  this  country  prescribes 
a  series  of  excellent  books  and  furnishes  for  a  goodly 
number  of  its  readers  annual  courses  of  lectures.  The 
teachers'  reading  circles  that  exist  in  many  States  pre- 
scribe the  books  to  be  read,  and  publish  some  analysis, 
commentary,  or  catechism  to  aid  the  members. 

Home  reading,  it  seems,  furnishes  the  essential 
basis  of  this  great  movement  to  extend  education 


£6055 


VI 


EDITOR'S  INTRODUCTION. 


beyond  the  school  and  to  make  self -culture  a  habit 
of  life. 

Looking  more  carefully  at  the  difference  between 
the  two  directions  of  the  new  education  we  can  see 
what  each  accomplishes.  There  is  first  an  effort  to 
train  the  original  powers  of  the  .individual  and  make 
him  self -active,  quick  at  observation,  and  free  in  his 
thinking.  Next,  the  new  education  endeavors,  by  the 
reading  of  books  and  the  study  of  the  wisdom  of  the 
race,  to  make  the  child  or  youth  a  participator  in  the 
results  of  experience  of  all  mankind. 

These  two  movements  may  be  made  antagonistic 
by  poor  teaching.  The  book  knowledge,  containing  as 
it  does  the  precious  lesson  of  human  experience,  may 
be  so  taught  as  to  bring  with  it  only  dead  rules  of 
conduct,  only  dead  scraps  of  information,  and  no 
stimulant  to  original  thinking.  Its  contents  may  be 
memorized  without  being  understood.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  self -activity  of  the  child  may  be  stimulated 
at  the  expense  of  his  social  well-being — his  originality 
may  be  cultivated  at  the  expense  of  his  rationality. 
If  he  is  taught  persistently  to  have  his  own  way,  to 
trust  only  his  own  senses,  to  cling  to  his  own  opinions 
heedless  of  the  experience  of  his  fellows,  he  is  pre- 
paring for  an  unsuccessful,  misanthropic  career,  and 
is  likely  enough  to  end  his  life  in  a  madhouse. 

It  is  admitted  that  a  too  exclusive  study  of  the 
knowledge  found  in  books,  the  knowledge  which  is 
aggregated  from  the  experience  and  thought  of  other 
people,  may  result  in  loading  the  mind  of  the  pupil 
with  material  which  he  can  not  use  to  advantage. 


EDITOR'S  INTRODUCTION.  vii 

Some  minds  are  so  full  of  lumber  that  there  is  no 
space  left  to  set  up  a  workshop.  The  necessity  of 
uniting  both  of  these  directions  of  intellectual  activity 
in  the  schools  is  therefore  obvious,  but  we  must  not, 
in  this  place,  fall  into  the  error  of  supposing  that  it  is 
the  oral  instruction  in  school  and  the  personal  influ- 
ence of  the  teacher  alone  that  excites  the  pupil  to  ac- 
tivity. Book  instruction  is  not  always  dry  and  theo- 
retical. The  very  persons  who  declaim  against  the 
book,  and  praise  in  such  strong  terms  the  self -activity 
of  the  pupil  and  original  research,  are  mostly  persons 
who  have  received  their  practical  impulse  from  read- 
ing the  writings  of  educational  reformers.  Yery  few 
persons  have  received  an  impulse  from  personal  con- 
tact with  inspiring  teachers  compared  with  the  num- 
ber that  have  received  an  impulse  from  such  books  as 
Herbert  Spencer's  Treatise  on  Education,  Kousseau's 
Emile,  Pestalozzi's  Leonard  and  Gertrude,  Francis 
W.  Parker's  Talks  about  Teaching,  G.  Stanley 
Hall's  Pedagogical  Seminary.  Think  in  this  connec- 
tion, too,  of  the  impulse  to  observation  in  natural  sci- 
ence produced  by  such  books  as  those  of  Hugh  Miller, 
Faraday,  Tyndall,  Huxley,  Agassiz,  and  Darwin. 

The  new  scientific  book  is  different  from  the  old. 
The  old  style  book  of  science  gave  dead  results  where 
the  new  one  gives  not  only  the  results,  but  a  minute 
account  of  the  method  employed  in  reaching  those  re- 
sults. An  insight  into  the  method  employed  in  dis- 
covery trains  the  reader  into  a  naturalist,  an  historian, 
a  sociologist.  The  books  of  the  writers  above  named 
have  done  more  to  stimulate  original  research  on  the 


viii  EDITOR'S  INTRODUCTION. 

part  of  their  readers  than  all  other  influences  com- 
bined. 

It  is  therefore  much  more  a  matter  of  importance 
to  get  the  right  kind  of  book  than  to  get  a  living 
teacher.  The  book  which  teaches  results,  and  at  the 
same  time  gives  in  an  intelligible  manner  the  steps  of 
discovery  and  the  methods  employed,  is  a  book 
which  will  stimulate  the  student  to  repeat  the  ex- 
periments described  and  get  beyond  these  into  fields 
of  original  research  himself.  Every  one  remem- 
bers the  published  lectures  of  Faraday  on  chemistry, 
which  exercised  a  wide  influence  in  changing  the  style 
of  books  on  natural  science,  causing  them  to  deal 
with  method  more  than  results,  and  thus  to  train 
the  reader's  power  of  conducting  original  research. 
Robinson  Crusoe  for  nearly  two  hundred  years  has 
stimulated  adventure  and  prompted  young  men  to 
resort  to  the  border  lands  of  civilization.  A  library 
of  home  reading  should  contain  books  that  stimulate 
to  self -activity  and  arouse  the  spirit  of  inquiry.  The 
books  should  treat  of  methods  of  discovery  and  evo- 
lution. All  nature  is  unified  by  the  discovery  of 
the  law  of  evolution.  Each  and  every  being  in  the 
world  is  now  explained  by  the  process  of  development 
to  which  it  belongs.  Every  fact  now  throws  light  on 
all  the  others  by  illustrating  the  process  of  growth  in 
which  each  has  its  end  and  aim. 

The  Home  Reading  Books  are  to  be  classed  as 
follows : 

First  Division.  Natural  history,  including  popular 
scientific  treatises  on  plants  and  animals,  and  also  de- 


EDITOR'S  INTRODUCTION.  ix 

scriptions  of  geographical  localities.  The  branch  of 
study  in  the  district  school  course  which  corresponds 
to  this  is  geography.  Travels  and  sojourns  in  distant 
lands;  special  writings  which  treat  of  this  or  that 
animal  or  plant,  or  family  of  animals  or  plants ;  any- 
thing that  relates  to  organic  nature  or  to  meteorol- 
ogy, or  descriptive  astronomy  may  be  placed  in  this 
class. 

Second  Division.  Whatever  relates  to  physics  or 
natural  philosophy,  to  the  statics  or  dynamics  of  air  or 
water  or  light  or  electricity,  or  to  the  properties  of 
matter ;  whatever  relates  to  chemistry,  either  organic 
or  inorganic — books  on  these  subjects  belong  to  the 
class  that  relates  to  what  is  inorganic.  Even  the  so- 
called  organic  chemistry  relates  to  the  analysis  of 
organic  bodies  into  their  inorganic  compounds. 

Third  Division.  History  and  biography  and  eth- 
nology. Books  relating  to  the  lives  of  individuals,  and 
especially  to  the  social  life  of  the  nation,  and  to  the 
collisions  of  nations  in  war,  as  well  as  to  the  aid  that 
one  gives  to  another  through  commerce  in  times  of 
peace;  books  on  ethnology  relating  to  the  manners 
and  customs  of  savage  or  civilized  peoples ;  books  on 
the  primitive  manners  and  customs  which  belong  to 
the  earliest  human  beings — books  on  these  subjects  be- 
long to  the  third  class?  relating  particularly  to  the  hu- 
man will,  not  merely  the  individual  will  but  the  social 
will,  the  will  of  the  tribe  or  nation ;  and  to  this  third 
class  belong  also  books  on  ethics  and  morals,  and  on 
forms  of  government  and  laws,  and  what  is  included 
under  the  term  civics  or  the  duties  of  citizenship. 


x  EDITOR'S  INTRODUCTION. 

Fourth  Division.  The  fourth  class  of  books  in- 
cludes more  especially  literature  and  works  that  make 
known  the  beautiful  in  such  departments  as  sculpture, 
painting,  architecture  and  music.  Literature  and  art 
show  human  nature  in  the  form  of  feelings,  emotions, 
and  aspirations,  and  they  show  how  these  feelings 
lead  over  to  deeds  and  to  clear  thoughts.  This  de- 
partment of  books  is  perhaps  more  important  than 
any  other  in  our  home  reading,  inasmuch  as  it  teaches 
a  knowledge  of  human  nature  and  enables  us  to  un- 
derstand the  motives  that  lead  our  fellow-men  to 
action. 

To  each  book  is  added  an  analysis  in  order  to  aid 
the  reader  in  separating  the  essential  points  from  the 
unessential,  and  give  each  its  proper  share  of  atten- 
tion. 

W.  T.  HABRIS. 
WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  November  16, 1896. 


PKEFACE. 


IN  the  study  of  animals,  children  are  com- 
pelled to  begin  in  the  midst  of  things,  and 
thus  they  never  come  to  appreciate  the  signifi- 
cance of  the  various  phases  in  the  development 
of  life,  for  the  reason  that  nearly  all  the  works 
on  zoology  dismiss  the  Protozoans  and  other 
microscopic  animals  either  with  the  briefest 
mention  or  with  no  mention  at  all.  « 

Yet  it  is  here  that  we  must  look  for  the 
very  sources  of  things,  without  some  idea  of 
which  no  one  can  apprehend  the  gradual  evolu- 
tion of  life  in  its  higher  forms  nor  appreciate 
any  living  thing  at  its  true  value. 

It  is  hoped  that  this  little  book  may  aid 
the  child  in  beginning  at  the  beginning,  and 
obtaining  a  connected  view  of  the  relations  of 
the  facts  that  he  will  acquire  as  he  advances  in 
the  study  of  animal  life. 


XI 


xii  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

The  plates  have  been  prepared  to  represent 
not  merely  the  organs  but  also  the  actions  of 
these  animals,  so  as  to  render  a  microscope  un- 
necessary, although  the  use  of  one  would  add 
to  the  interest  of  the  study. 

The  author  might  claim,  with  truth,  to 
have  written  this  little  volume  for  the  purpose 
of  enriching  the  child's  life  by  teaching  him 
how  much  more  interesting  the  world  is  than 
it  ordinarily  seems ;  and  this  is  one  object  of 
the  book;  but,  to  be  honest,  the  real  reason 
for  the  writing  was  to  please  herself,  and  be- 
cause she  is  fond  of  these  microscopic  creatures, 
and  would  have  the  boys  and  girls  enjoy  them 
with  her. 

C.  K.  B. 

CHICAGO,  February,  1897. 


AUTHOK'S  INTKODUCTION. 


THINGS  known  to  us  are  divided  into  four  great  king- 
doms—the mineral,  the  vegetable,  the  animal,  and  the 
spiritual.  In  the  mineral  kingdom  there  is  popularly 
supposed  to  be  no  life.  The  mineral  grows  by  accretion, 
by  adding  like  particles  to  the  outside.  It  has  no  power  to 
create  new  substances.  Plants  and  animals  grow  by  as- 
similation, by  eating  and  digesting  food,  by  taking  par- 
ticles of  matter  and  transforming  them  into  entirely  new 
substances,  and  depositing  them  on  the  inside.  Because 
they  have  this  power  to  create  new  forms  of  matter,  they 
are  said  to  be  alive. 

The  lower  forms  of  animals  are  almost  indistinguish- 
able from  plant  forms,  yet  there  is  a  wide  difference  be- 
tween the  animal  and  vegetable  kingdoms.  The  very 
name  animal,  from  animus,  mind,  shows  that  the  possess- 
or is  allied  to  the  spiritual  kingdom.  The  lowest  ani- 
mal has  what  the  plant  has  not — volition  or  power  of 
choosing,  if  it  be  only  the  choice  of  moving  or  remaining 
at  rest. 

In  this  book  we  have  considered  a  low  order  of  unicel- 
lular plants,  the  Desmids  and  Diatoms,  which  may  be 
said  to  have  been  caught  in  the  act  of  turning  into 
animals;  yet  even  here  we  have  found  phenomena  of 
marvelous  interest  and  prophecies  of  greater  things  to 
come. 

We  have  studied  the  lower  animals,  single-celled  Pro- 
tozoans, closely  allied  to  plants,  almost  wholly  undiifer- 


xiv  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

entiated  in  organs  or  functions,  reproducing  by  spores  as 
the  lower  plants  do,  or  by  cutting  off  a  piece  of  them- 
selves as  plants  propagate  from  slips.  We  have  gone  on 
through  the  Protozoans,  finding  matter  differentiated  into 
muscle,  as  in  the  Vorticella  ;  into  eyespots,  as  in  the  Eu- 
glena;  into  cilia,  into  oesophagus,  and  even  into  the  per- 
manent legs  of  the  Euplotes — and  all  this  in  simple,  one- 
celled  animals. 

Higher  in  the  scale  of  being  we  find  the  multicellular 
worms  and  Hydrce,  the  latter  with  their  cells  arranged  in 
two  layers  forming  a  hollow  digestive  tube,  but  still  so 
undifferentiated  in  function  that  the  two  layers  can  read- 
ily exchange  work  and  location.  The  animals  still  propa- 
gate by  slips ;  yet  here,  in  some  instances,  begins  the  pro- 
duction of  offspring  by  eggs,  corresponding  to  the  pro- 
pagation by  seed  in  the  Phcenogams  or  higher  plants. 
Next  we  find  in  the  Rotifers  a  distinct  reproduction 
by  egg ;  a  differentiation  of  matter  into  mastax,  eye,  and 
even  brain,  as  well  as  into  sex.  In  Crustaceans  we 
have  highly  specialized  animals,  with  a  great  number 
of  organs,  as  gills,  legs,  antennae,  eyes,  hearts,  and  mouth 
parts. 

In  the  Brachi&nus,  redoubling  its  energy  at  the  pros- 
pect of  food,  we  have  an  indication  of  mind ;  in  the 
Canthocamptus  blaming  its  companion  and  retaliat- 
ing— is  it  going  too  far  to  say  we  have  psychological 
phenomena  —  one  mind  estimating  what  is  in  another  ? 
and  that  here  we  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  spiritual  king- 
dom ?  At  any  rate,  when  you  go  a  step  further  and 
note  the  hostile  attitude  of  the  crayfish,  the  bee,  or  the 
wasp,  the  moment  you  appear  upon  the  scene,  it  will  no 
longer  be  possible  to  doubt  that  you  are  observing  con- 
duct dictated  by  an  intelligence  which  is  dimly  self-con- 
scious, and  which  recognizes  intelligence  and  purpose 
in  you. 

In  this  study,  as  in  all  your  zoological  studies,  you  will 
notice : 


AUTHOR'S  INTRODUCTION.  XV 

1.  That  in  the  beginning,  organs  as  well  as  animals  are 
much  alike;   that  differentiation  or  evolution  starts  in 
protoplasm  and  works  up  from  the  general  to  the  special ; 
that  organs  of  locomotion,  sight,  respiration,  circulation, 
etc.,  have  not  been  made  "  out  of  hand,"  but  have  grown 
by  use,  as  intellectual  faculties  do. 

2.  That  there  are  in  the  earliest  living  things  incipient 
prophecies  of  organs  and  faculties  to  come,  and  that  few, 
if  any,  of  the  prophecies  are  yet  wholly  fulfilled  even  in 
man ;  for  instance,  there  is  promise  in  the  Diatom  of  a 
unison  and  harmony  of  action  to  which  man  has  not  at- 
tained, and  of  a  mode  of  locomotion  which  he  has  not 
perfected. 

3.  That  in  addition  to  the  development  of  physical 
function  there  is  a  slow  but  continuous  progress  in  men- 
tal function  or  intelligence. 

4.  When  the  latter  reaches  the  point  manifested  in  hu- 
man kind,  notice  the  hints  of  how  man  takes  up  and  car- 
ries forward  Nature's  work,  making  new  pseudopods,  eyes, 
etc.,  for  himself ;  and  reflect  upon  what  bearing  this  has 
on  the  proposition  that  man  is  Nature's  final  effort  in  the 
animal  line. 

This  volume  treats  of  but  a  limited  number  of  the 
aquatic  objects,  and  there  are  other  fields  of  research 
which  will  be  found  of  absorbing  interest.  In  botany, 
entomology,  crystallography,  embryology,  and  many 
other  departments  of  science,  the  microscope  is  invaluable, 
and  its  revelations  are  an  unfailing  source  of  surprise  and 
profit.  But  the  isolated  facts  to  be  gathered  in  this  way 
are  comparatively  valueless  unless  their  relation  to  other 
facts,  their  place  in  the  continuity  of  facts,  is  understood. 
In  other  words,  it  may  be  of  interest  to  know  that  an  ani- 
mal has  a  certain  kind  of  eye  or  heart,  but  it  is  of  vastly 
more  interest  to  know  what  o'clock  that  indicates  in  the 
gradual  evolution  of  eyes  and  hearts;  for  evolution  is, 
after  all,  the  paramountly  significant  and  inspiring  truth 
which  science  teaches. 


xvi  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY. — For  the  beginner  in  the  study  of  zool- 
ogy, such  works  as  Stokes's  Microscopy  for  Beginners, 
the  method  of  observation  exemplified  in  Colton's  Zool- 
ogy and  Huxley's  The  Crayfish,  and  the  classification  of 
Crustacea  and  Protozoa  in  the  Encyclopaedia  Britan- 
nica,  will  be  found  very  helpful.  For  those  more  ad- 
vanced, we  recommend  Kent's  Manual  of  Infusoria, 
Bronn's  Klassen  und  Ordnungen  des  Thierreichs,  and  the 
various  works  on  comparative  anatomy. 

THE  AUTHOR. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  PAW 

I.— RHIZOPODS 1 

II. — THE  WHIPLASHERS 27 

III.— ClLIATA         .          .    * 37 

IV. — PROTOZOAN  PHILOSOPHY 81 

Y. — WHEEL  BEARERS       ._ 91 

VI. — CRUSTACEANS 115 

VII. — THE  HUNGRY  GLOVE* 139 

VIII. — "PLANTS    AT   THE    MOMENT    OF    BECOMING 

ANIMALS" 148 

IX. — WlGGLERS  AND  MINUET  DANCERS  .       .       .159 

X. — TAKING  VACATIONS    .       .       .       .       .       .  164 

XI.— THE   GREATEST  JOKE   OF  ALL  .          .          .          .167 

PRONOUNCING  GLOSSARY  .  177 


XYll 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTEATIONS. 


FIGURE  PAGE 

1. — An  Amoeba:  a,  pulsating  vacuole;  ft,  nucleus       .       .  2 

2.— Walking 4 

3. — Twenty  minutes  for  dinner :  e,  food  particles         .        .  5 

4. — Multiplication  by  division 11 

5. — 1,  Arcella  acurainata;   2,  arcella  vulgaris;  3,  arcella 

dentata •  ...  14 

6. — 1,  Pulsating  vacuole ;  2,  food  in  food-vacuole         .        .  20 

7. — Clathrulina  elegans 24 

8. — Various  stages  in  the  development  of  Euglena  viridis : 
a,  red  eye  spot ;  5,  pulsating  vacuole ;  c,  nucleus ;  7, 

preparing  to  form  spores 28 

0.— Dallingeria 33 

10. — Dallingeria  and  family 35 

11. —  Vorticella  nebulifera,  showing  development  of  individ- 
ual stages  A  to  F  (E  and  F  free)        ....  40 
12. — Bell  animalcule :  a,  ciliated  disk ;  &,  rim  or  lip ;  d,  oesoph- 
agus ;  e,  funnel ;  /,  food ;  pv,  pulsating  vacuole        .  41 
13. —  VorticellcB :  Dividing,  budding,  coiling,  uncoiling,  and 

free 43 

14. — Animated  calla-lilies 46 

15.— Vorticellae 50 

16. — Ocean-steamer  line .52 

17.— 1,  Cothurnia;  2,  3,  4,  Vaginicolw 53 

18.— 1,  Pyxicola ;  2,  Thuricola 57 

19.— Colony  of  stentors 60 

20. — Parammcium :  a,  vacuole  distributing  secretion ;  6,  vac- 
uole filling ;  c,  nucleus ;  d.  oesophagus ;  e,  funnel ; 

/,  food  balls ;  g,  temporary  anus     ....  63 
21. — Conjugation      .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .67 

22.— Trachelocerca 70 

xix 


XX  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

FIQURK  PACK 

23.— Amphileptus 74 

24. — 1,  Euplotes  harpa;  2,  Euplotes  charon           .        .        .  78 

25. — Floscularia  cornuta  (magnified)     .....  89 

26. — 1,  Pterodina  ;  2,  a  one-legged  pedestrian      ...  92 

27.— Wheel  of  tube  wheel 93 

28.— Two-lipped  tube  wheel 93 

29.— Tripod  wheel  bearer 97 

30.— Tube  wheels :  1,  retracted ;  e,  egg 98 

31.— Skeleton  wheel  bearer 99 

32. — Stephanoceros  eichornii  (magnified)        ....  101 

33. — 1,  Rotifer  vulgaris  ;  2,  same  walking;  3,  young  one      .  102 

34. — Brachionus 104 

35.— Mouth  of  Brachionus 104 

36.— Sword  bearer 109 

Sl.—Daphnia  pulex 119 

38—Canthocamptu8 128 

39. — Cyclops  quadricomis :  a,  young 133 

40.— Hydras 142 

41. — Hydra  attacking  a  water  flea 146 

42.—Desmids;^Closterium 149 

43. — Orthosira  Dressmri 151 

44. — Nitzschia  vivax 151 

45. — Pinnularia  major    ........  152 

46. — Stauroneis  Phmnicenteron 152 

47. — Navicnla  didyma 153 

48. — Pleurosigma  formosum 153 

49. — Bacillaria  paradoxa 156 

5Q.—Strephuris 160 

51. — Aulophorus 162 

52. — 1  and  6,  Zoea  of  shore  crab;  2,  Trinema;  3,  Cerco- 
monas;  4,  Stauridia ;  5,  Zoea  of  Stomapod;  7, 

Lepas 165 

FULL-PAGE  CHARTS.  PACINO 

PAGE 

I. — ARCELL.E — FAIRY  SHRIMP      .        .        .       Frontispiece 

II. — VAGINICOLA 65 

III. — MATINEE  BY  THE  MERRY  COLEPS  COMPANY  ...  75 

IV.— HYDRA  139 


DIATOMACE.E. 
PKOTOZOANS. 

Gymnomixa. 


Corticata. 

FLAGELLATA — Euglena. 

RHYNCHO-FLAGELLATA.— Noctiluca. 

f  Peritricha . . 


Vorticella. 
\  Vaginicolinae. 

Heterotriclia. — Stentor. 

f  Paramoecium. 

Holotricha..  J  Trachelocerca. 
)  Amphileptus. 
[  Coleps. 

="•"**•  iSSEfr 


VERMES. 
ROTIFEEA. 

CRUSTACEANS. 


METAZOANS. 


{Cypris. 
clntSamptu, 
Diaptomus. 


ACALEPHS — Hydroids. 


xxu 


IN  BEOOK  AND  BAYOU. 


CHAPTER  I. 

EHIZOPODS. 

THE  SLOWEST  THING  ON  EARTH. 
(Amoeba.) 

ANYONE  who  makes  good  use  of  his  eyes 
knows  that  there  is  a  multitude  of  things  to  be 
seen  everywhere  which  escape  the  attention  of 
the  careless  observer.  There  are  beautiful 
tints  on  the  flowers,  odd  shapes  among  the 
leaves,  curious  rocks  that  look  like  and  cure 
petrified  animals,  wonderful  insects,  and  many 
other  interesting  things  which  he  could  easily 
pass  unheeded. 

But  the  keenest-eyed  person  might  stand 
by  a  wayside  pool  without  once  noticing  what 
a  host  of  queer  people  inhabit  it.  There  are 
more  colors  and  kinds  of  people  in  a  little 
stagnant  pond  than  are  to  be  found  in  all  the 
countries  you  read  about  in  your  geographies. 


2  IN  BKOOK  AND  BAYOU. 

You  do  not  see  them  because  most  of  them 
are  so  modest  and  shy  that  they  never  allow 
mortal  eye  to  look  upon  them  except  through 
a  powerful  magnifying  glass. 

They  are  well  worth  the  trouble  of  seek- 
ing, for  they  are  a  strange  sort  of  folk  when 


FIG.  1. — An  Amoeba :  o,  pulsating  vacuole ;  b,  nucleus. 

you  find  them,  some  of  them  having  neither 
eyes,  ears,  mouths,  hands,  nor  feet,  and  yet 
managing  to  live  very  comfortably. 

I  want  to  tell  you  about  one  of  these  head- 
less races  of  the  pool  known  as  the 

AMOEBA  FAMILY. 

The  first  curious  thing  about  them  is  that 
they  are  all  ladies.  There  isn't  a  man  or  boy 
among  them. 


RHIZOPODS.  3 

They  are  very  domestic  and  seldom  travel 
abroad.  The  smallest  pond  is  an  immense 
world  to  them,  and  has  many  unexplored  re- 
gions like  those  on  your  maps  around  the  north 
and  south  poles. 

And  yet,  as  you  become  acquainted  with 
them,  you  will  find  these  ladies  very  entertain- 
ing company.  If  you  dip  one  up  in  a  drop  of 
water  and  put  her  under  your  microscope,  you 
will  be  quite  fascinated  with  her;  yet  all 
you'll  see  will  be  something  resembling  a  tiny 
spatter  of  water  with  a  few  colored  specks  in 
it.  But  it  is  alive,  and  that  is  why  it  fasci- 
nates you. 

Amcebse  are  made  of  protoplasm,  a  jelly- 
like  substance  not  unlike  the  white  of  an  egg. 
Yet  they  can  move  and  eat  and  breathe  and 
rear  children,  all  after  a  fashion  of  their  own. 

You  may  see  them  do  all  these  things  with 
your  microscope. 

They  have  wills  of  their  own,  too.  And 
that  is  the  whole  secret  of  their  eating  and 
walking  without  mouths  or  feet. 

That,  I  suspect,  is  the  whole  secret  of  being 
an  animal  at  all,  instead  of  a  plant  or  a  rock- 
to  will  or  want  to  do  things. 

So,  when  an  amoeba  wants  to  take  a  morn- 
ing walk,  it  uses  its  will  power  to  thrust  out  a 


4  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

loop  or  prong  of  its  outer  covering,  and  then 
the  granular  part  of  its  body  flows  into  it. 

Did  you  ever  before  hear  of  a  creature  that 
walked  by  flowing  ? 

When  it  wishes  to  take  another  step,  it 
pushes  out  another  loop  and  flows  into  that. 


FIG.  2.— Walking. 

But  the  amoeba  is  slower  than  time — a  great 
deal  slower ! 

If  you  wish  to  see  how  much  our  mode 
of  travel  resembles  theirs,  just  watch  a  baby 
creeping.  Or  go  up  into  one  of  those  large 
city  buildings  which  have  an  open  court  in  the 
center,  like  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  or  the 
Masonic  Temple  in  Chicago,  and  look  down 
over  the  railing  from  the  upper  story  upon  the 
people  crossing  the  court  on  the  ground  floor. 


EHIZOPODS.  5 

They  do  not  look  in  the  least  like  men.  They 
have  no  height.  They  look  like  black  or  gray 
knobs,  and  their  legs  seem  to  be  nothing  but 
horizontal  protuberances  stretching  forward  at 
the  front  and  withdrawing  at  the  rear. 

Try  it  some  time.  It  will  make  you  laugh 
to  see  what  a  queer  object  a  walking  man  is 
when  viewed  perpendicularly ;  and  that  is  the 
way  in  which  you  look  at  the  amoeba. 

But  you  must  remember  that  there  is  this 
difference  between  a  man's  walk  and  an 


FIG.  3. — Twenty  minutes  for  dinner :  c,  food  particles. 

amoeba's — the  man's  is  very  much  swifter.  It 
would  take  an  amoeba  a  week  to  cross  the 
court,  small  as  it  is. 


6  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

The  feet  which  the  amoeba  makes  when  it 
wishes  to  travel  are  called  pseudvpodia,  or 
"  make-believe  feet,"  because  they  are  not  real 
feet  and  do  not  remain  when  made,  but  become 
part  of  the  body  again,  and  will  perhaps  be 
make-believe  arms  to  grasp  something  the  next 
time  they  are  thrust  out. 

Possibly  you  have  heard  people  in  a  rail- 
way carriage,  if  they  are  addicted  to  slang, 
say,  "  Let's  go  out  and  throw  ourselves 
around  some  food,"  when  the  conductor  called 
"Twenty  minutes  for  dinner." 

That  is  what  the  Amoebse  do.  They  throw 
themselves  around  their  food.  Only  these 
leisurely  ladies  take  their  time  to  it. 

As  they  have  no  mouths  into  which  to  put 
their  food,  they  manage  in  this  way:  When 
they  come  in  contact  with  a  particle  of  nutri- 
ment, they  make  arms  to  take  it,  in  the  same 
way  that  they  made  feet,  by  bulging  out  a 
loop  of  their  clear  outer  margin  and  flowing 
into  it.  In  this  manner  they  flow  around  their 
food,  or  throw  themselves  around  it,  and  wrap 
it  up  within  them. 

No  doubt  they  are  delighted  whenever 
they  secure  a  morsel.  I  once  knew  a  little 
boy,  just  learning  to  feed  himself,  who  took 
his  tiny  fork  and  speared  after  the  morsels  on 


RH1ZOPODS.  7 

his  plate,  and  each  time  he  captured  one  he 
laughed  and  exulted,  holding  it  up  and  call- 
ing on  all  those  at  the  table  to  rejoice  with 
him  over  his  achievement.  He  gloated  over 
each  mouthful  before  he  ate  it. 

And  in  their  demure  way  the  amoebae  exult 
over  every  particle  of  food  they  find,  and  con- 
sider it  a  delicious  tidbit,  though  it  really  is 
only  a  bit  of  slimy  moss  or  ooze  from  the  bot- 
tom of  the  pond.  But  they  like  it,  growing 
and  thriving  upon  it. 

They  can  not  digest  it  as  you  do  your  food, 
for  they  have  no  stomachs  except  such  as  they 
make  on  demand;  but  they  absorb  it  as  you 
do  the  medicines  you  put  on  the  outside  to 
cure  an  aching  head  or  a  sore  throat. 

When  they  have  extracted  all  the  nourish- 
ment from  the  moss,  they  eject  the  refuse  from 
any  part  of  their  bodies,  or,  to  describe  the 
operation  more  accurately,  they  roll  themselves 
away  from  it. 

If  you  watch  an  amoeba,  you  will  see  a 
small  bubble  or  opening  coming  in  the  granular 
part  of  its  body.  This  enlarges  until,  through 
the  microscope,  it  looks  almost  large  enough 
to  admit  the  top  of  your  pencil.  Then  it 
closes  slowly,  though  in  much  less  time  than 
was  required  for  its  coming. 


8  IN   BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

This  bubble  comes  and  goes  with  great 
regularity.  It  is  called  a  pulsating  vacuole,  or 
"beating  emptiness,"  and  is  the  nearest  ap- 
proach to  a  heart  which  the  amoeba  has. 

One  morning  a  company  of  Amoebae  were 
holding  a  festival  near  the  edge  of  the  pond. 

They  were  gathered  about  the  roots  of  a 
tree  which  stood  partly  in  the  water.  It 
was  raining,  and  they  were  unusually  happy, 
for  the  waters  were  roiled,  and  many  particles 
of  food  came  floating  up  to  be  wrapped  in 
their  embraces.  They  had  not  been  as  well 
fed  nor  as  jolly  for  a  long  time.  The  summer 
had  been  so  hot  and  the  temperature  had  so 
often  risen  to  one  hundred  degrees  that  they 
had  been  "  heat-stiffened "  most  of  the  time 
and  unable  to  get  about  or  to  eat  or  to  enjoy 
life ;  for  extreme  heat  as  well  as  extreme  cold 
renders  an  amoeba  stiff  and  apparently  dead. 

But  now  the  sun  was  overcast  by  clouds, 
the  cool  rain  was  falling,  and  the  ladies  in  the 
water  had  quite  recovered  their  health  and 
spirits,  and  were  very  merry  for  such  sedate 
people  as  they. 

But  suddenly  a  flash  of  lightning  came 
down  the  tree,  splashing  the  water  at  its 
roots  into  the  air.  And  every  Amoeba  within 


RHIZOPODS.  9 

ten  feet  of  the  tree  was  rolled  into  a  ball  ancj 
lay  motionless  as  in  death.  The  water  seemed 
to  be  full  of  corpses. 

Those  nearest  the  tree  were  indeed  corpses 
and  never  wakened  more.  But  those  farther 
away,  who  had  not  received  so  strong  a  charge 
of  electricity,  remained  in  a  trance  for  awhile, 
then  slowly  revived  and  unrolled  themselves, 
and  after  a  time  began  to  move  and  eat  once 
more. 

When  the  Amoebae  came  to  life  and  found 
that  some  of  their  companions  were  dead,  they 
felt  very  sad.  They  did  not  weep.  How  could 
they,  when  they  had  no  eyes  from  which  the 
tears  could  fall,  and  no  hands  to  hold  their 
pocket-handkerchiefs  ? 

But  they  were  lonesome,  and  wanted  more 
Amoebae  to  take  the  places  of  those  who  were 
dead. 

Some  said  it  was  too  soon  to  think  of  filling 
the  vacant  chairs.  But  others  disapproved  of 
delay,  and  suggested  that  there  might  be  im- 
proved modern  methods  for  replacing  their 
loss. 

"  Now  IVe  heard,"  said  one  bright  Amoeba 
lady,  "  that  there  are  strange  folk  in  foreign 
lands  who  have  fathers  and  mothers  and  whole 
shoals  of  children  in  their  families.  The  Snail, 


10  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

who  is  a  great  traveler,  a  regular  Wandering 
Jew  of  a  fellow,  and  who  has  circumnavigated 
the  Bayou  and  has  gone  far  out  beyond  our 
world  to  a  distant  country  known  as  'The 
River,'  says  that  in  that  country  are  barbarous 
heathen  people,  called  Fishes,  who  have  fami- 
lies of  that  sort,  with  menfolk  at  the  head  of 
them. 

"  But  he  says,  too,  that  these  Fishes  have 
eyes,  mouths,  fins,  gills,  scales,  and  a  great 
many  other  useless  things  with  which  we  are 
not  burdened. 

"  So,  as  we  are  not  like  them,  it  might  be 
a  risky  experiment  for  us  to  try  to  imitate 
them  in  our  family  matters." 

Another  said :  "  The  Bible  *  tells  us  that 
when  the  Creator  wanted  inhabitants  on  earth, 
he  split  a  one-stemmed  rhubarb  stalk  down  the 
middle  and  it  became  two  people. 

"That  was  the  Creator's  way,  and  it  has 
always  been  our  way,  and  I  think  we'd  better 
abide  by  the  traditions  of  the  past  and  not  try 
newfangled  methods." 

So  they  ate  and  grew  and  expanded  their 
bodies  till  there  came  a  second  nucleus  and  a 
second  "  beating  nothingness." 

*  The  Amoebae  read  the  Zend-Avesta,  the  Parsee  Bible. 


RHIZOPODS. 


11 


Then,  on  opposite  edges  of  the  body  be- 
tween the  two  nuclei,  there  came  two  indenta- 
tions which  deepened  and  deepened  until  they 
met  in  the  middle.  And  behold !  there  were 
two  creatures  instead  of  one. 

Every  time  an  amoeba  divides  into  two, 
both  new  beings  are  born  into  new^life,  and 


FIG.  4. — Multiplication  by  division. 

there  is  no  waste  or  dead  body  to  leave  be- 
hind. 

When  these  two  divide  again,  there  are 
four  new  and  perfect  animals. 

And  this  is  how  it  comes  to  pass  that  the 
Amoebae  have  done  a  thing  which  neither  fish 
nor  fowl  nor  man  has  ever  succeeded  in  doing, 
though  many  of  the  latter  have  tried. 

Ponce  de  Leon  came  to  America  in  the 
early  days  after  its  discovery  and  hunted  all 
up  and  down  the  forests  and  along  the  rivers 


12  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

for  a  Fountain  of  Youth  which  was  said  to  pre- 
vent men  from  growing  old. 

Many  alchemists  have  spent  their  lives  try- 
ing to  make  an  Elixir  of  Life  which  should 
ward  off  death  and  keep  people  forever  vigor- 
ous and  young.  No  man  has  ever  found  just 
this  thing.  (I  will  tell  you  some  day  how 
near  he  has  come  to  it.)  But  the  very  first 
Amoeba  that  ever  lived  drank  at  the  fountain 
and  partook  of  the  elixir  which  keeps  the 
Amoebae  from  age  and  death. 

This  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  things 
about  these  wonderful  little  beings — that  they 
and  their  cousins,  the  Paramcecii,  the  Bell  ani- 
malcules, and  all  the  one-celled  Protozoans, 
never  die.  They  may  be  killed  or  may  die 
from  accident,  but  there  is  no  such  thing  as 
natural  death  among  them.  They  are  always 
cut  off  in  the  prime  of  life,  as  men  prefer  to 
be  who  have  a  horror  of  being  sick  in  bed  or 
dying  of  feebleness  and  age. 

So  they  go  on  to  this  day,  increasing  their 
numbers  by  dividing  through  the  middle ;  and 
are  always  immortal,  living  forever,  unless 
some  dire  disaster  befalls  them. 

By  this  way  of  making  two  out  of  one  you 
will  see  that  the  people  in  the  pond  use  a 


RHIZOPODS.  13 

different  arithmetic  from  yours.  When  they 
want  to  multiply,  they  divide.  Their  arith- 
metic says  : 

"When  any  thing  or  number  is  divided 
into  two  equal  parts,  each  of  the  parts  is  called 
a  whole  one.  Two  halves  equal  two  whole 


ones." 


2  X  i  =  2         1  -f-  2  =  2. 
2X|=4         2-^2  =  4. 

And  their  algebra  says  : 

Let  x  =  1  amoeba, 
and  y  =.  \  amoeba. 

Then  x  +  y  —  f  =  3. 


2  os  =  4.     So  so  =  two  instead  of  one  amoeba. 
Oh,  you  would  never  get  on  in  their  algebra. 

But  if  you  like  these  little  creatures  and 
want  them  always  near  you,  I  will  tell  you  a 
secret  if  you'll  never  reveal  it  to  any  of  the 
ladies  who  call  upon  me. 

When  the  ponds  are  frozen  over,  a  vase  of 
water  in  which  nasturtium  slips  are  growing  is 
their  favorite  Winter  Palace. 

You  can  put  the  vase  in  the  drawing-room 
window  and  have  beautiful  flowers  all  winter, 


14  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

and  people  will  admire  your  "  lovely  jardi- 
niere? though  they  might  be  horrified  if  they 
suspected  that  it  was  a  menagerie  containing  a 
dozen  different  kinds  of  living  animals. 


II. 

UNDER  A  HAT. 
(Arcella.) 

Some  of  the  missionaries  who  distributed 
clothing  to  the  naked  savages  in  the  tropic 
countries  tell  us  that  the  natives  were  not 
satisfied  with  their  allotment  of  garments,  so 


FIG.  5. — 1,  Arcella  acuminata;  2,  arcella  vulgaris;  3,  arcella 
dentata. 

they  traded  among  themselves,  and  when  they 
came  to  services  on  the  following  day  their 
appearance  was  most  grotesque  and  astonish- 
ing, A  woman  would  be  attired  in  a  man's 
shirt,  or  a  stalwart  man  would  stalk  proudly  in, 


EHIZOPODS.  15 

wearing,  as  his  only  article  of  apparel,  a  lady's 
bonnet. 

Now  the  Amoebae  never  wear  clothing.  But 
they  have  some  near  kinsmen,  the  Crown 
Amoebae,  or  Arcellae,  who  are  much  more  aristo- 
cratic, the  adults  seldom  appearing  in  public 
without  a  hat. 

This  is  their  only  garment,  but  it  is  large 
enough  to  cover  the  whole  body  when  they 
retract  their  pseudopodia,  or  extemporized 
limbs,  and  remain  at  rest. 

They  make  their  hats  themselves  by  exud- 
ing from  their  bodies  a  chitinous  substance, 
which  shapes  itself  into  a  shell  so  thin  and 
transparent  that  the  movements  of  the  arcella 
may  be  seen  through  it.  These  shells  or  hats 
are  flexible,  and  sometimes  the  arcella  rolls 
the  brim  up  or  bends  it  down  as  girls  do  with 
the  brims  of  their  flats  or  sailor  hats. 

When  seen  from  above,  these  hats  look  like 
flat  disks  or  plates,  with  delicate  markings  and 
tintings  on  them.  There  are  browns  and 
greens  and  yellows,  from  the  darkest  to  the 
lightest. 

When  these  pretty  shells  lie  at  rest  on  the 
slide  of  your  microscope,  you  may  easily  mis- 
take them  for  plants  or  dead  matter;  but  when 
the  tiny  plate  begins  to  crawl  about,  there  is 


16  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

no  mistaking  the  active  will  which  propels  it. 
You  know  there  is  a  live  being  underneath, 
even  if  you  do  not  see  the  animal  extending 
its  pseudopodia  beyond  the  shell,  as  you  often 
may. 

A  side  view  shows  you  the  true  shape  of 
the  shell,  as  in  Chart  I,  Figs.  1  and  4. 

The  arcella  itself  is  exactly  like  the 
amoeba  in  appearance  and  habits.  It  walks, 
eats,  and  digests  in  the  same  way ;  but  it  is 
distinguished  by  having  a  hat  or  house,  by 
two  or  three  nuclei,  and  by  the  manner  of  get- 
ting offspring. 

Instead  of  dividing  into  two,  as  the  amoeba 
does,  the  arcella  increases  its  family  by  what 
is  known  as  "bud  fission" — that  is,  it  puts 
forth  pseudopods  on  which  warts  or  buds  ap- 
pear, and  after  a  time  it  pinches  them  off,  sev- 
eral at  a  time,  so  that  it  often  has  a  family  of 
nine  children  all  of  an  age.  Just  think  what 
a  time  there  would  be  of  it  if  they  should  all 
catch  the  measles  or  whooping-cough  ! 

And  these  are  real  babies,  not  grown-up 
folks  like  the  new-made  Amoebae ;  for  the 
young  Arcellse  have  to  develop  pulsating  vacu- 
oles  for  themselves,  and,  like  the  children  of 
all  primitive  people,  they  are  allowed  to  go 
without  clothing  till  they  are  old  enough  to 


EHIZOPODS.  1? 

make  it  for  themselves.  Then  they  make 
their  pretty  hats  and  feel  clothed  and  in  their 
right  minds,  equipped  for  the  business  of  life. 

There  is  another  thing  which  distinguishes 
them  from  the  Amoebae.  The  Amoebae  can  not 
swim  nor  float,  but  have  to  crawl  on  the  mud 
at  the  bottom  of  the  pool  or  on' sticks  and  leaves. 
But  the  Arcellae  have  little  bladders  in  which 
to  secrete  gas,  and  when  the  bladder  is  filled 
they  can  rise  to  the  top  or  float  in  the  water  as 
an  aeronaut  does  in  the  air  with  his  balloon. 
When  they  wish  to  sink  to  the  bottom  they  do 
as  the  man  in  the  balloon  does,  they  open  a 
valve  and  let  out  the  gas. 

Who  would  have  suspected  that  away 
down  in  the  mud  of  the  bayou  we  should  find 
a  prophecy  of  man's  latest  invention?  Or  a 
little  creature  who  has  gone  "  up  in  a  balloon, 
boys,  up  in  a  balloon  "  so  many  times  and  for 
so  many  ages  that  it  is  no  marvel  at  all  to  him 
or  to  his  fellows  ?  And  they  never  think  of 
taking  their  machine  to  country  fairs  and  aston- 
ishing the  natives  with  it. 

Nature  has  been  working  up  the  balloon 
trade  for  ages  past,  you  see. 

There  are  three  families  of  the  Arcellae — 
the  Acuminata,  the  Dentate,,  and  the  Miftrata 
— and  "  by  their  hats  shall  ye  know  them,"  for 


18  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

each  family  wears  its  own  peculiar  hat,  as  the 
Scottish  clans  used  to  do. 

Only  the  Scotch  called  theirs  bonnets,  and 
made  songs  about  them,  and  used  them  as 
other  people  do  flags,  to  distinguish  the  armies 
when  they  go  to  battle. 

The  Scots  sang : 

"  And  it's  ho !  for  the  bonnets  of  bonny  Dundee." 

The  Arcellae  sing : 

"  And  it's  ho !  for  the  bonnets  of  bonny  Dentatee." 

For  the  Arcellae  are  just  as  proud  of  their 
headdresses  as  the  Scots  were,  and  consider 
them  a  sort  of  coat  of  arms  by  which  each  in- 
dividual may  proclaim  to  the  world  his  title  to 
a  long  line  of  distinguished  ancestors. 

I  think  the  Arcellae  never  go  to  war, 
but  when  they  go  abroad  to  display  their 
clothes  there  is  no  doubt  but  the  Accumi- 
natae  think  theirs  is  the  most  stylish  and  be- 
coming hat ;  and  the  Dentatae  think  theirs  is ; 
and  the  Mitratae  think  theirs  is ;  else  why 
should  they  persist  in  wearing  that  particular 
kind  and  never  changing  to  one  of  the  other 
styles,  since  they  have  the  making  all  in  their 
own  hands  ? 

And  it  is  no  wonder  they  like  their  head- 
dresses, for  they  are  very  pretty,  and  the  poor 


EHIZOPODS.  19 

creature  looks  so  sorry  and  dejected  when  lie 
has  outgrown  his  hat  and  has  to  crawl  out  and 
lie  around  unclothed  till  he  can  make  another 
(Chart  I,  Fig.  5)  ! 


III. 

THE  SUN  ANIMALCULE. 
(Actinophrys  sol.) 

If  you  blow  soap  bubbles  from  the  end  of 
a  tube  into  the  air,  blowing  carefully  with  fre- 
quent pauses,  you  may  make,  not  a  single  bub- 
ble, but  a  ball  of  small  bubbles. 

Now,  if  you  can  imagine  that  out  from  this 
globe  of  bubbles,  radiating  in  all  directions,  are 
spines  as  colorless  as  the  bubbles  themselves, 
and  that  every  moment  or  two  a  large  bubble 
bursts  and  then  forms  itself  again,  you  will 
know  how  the  Actinophrys  sol  looks. 

It  is  called  the  sun  animalcule  because  the 
rays  from  the  ball  make  it  look  like  the  old 
pictures  of  the  sun. 

You  can  find  it  in  your  jardiniere  and  every- 
where in  fresh  water,  where  other  microscopic 
animals  live,  but  its  favorite  residence  is  on 
sphagnum  or  bog  moss. 


20 


IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 


A  large  one  is  -^-^  of  an  inch  in  diameter. 
It  is  very  quiet  and  well  behaved.  It  has  a 
gently  gliding  or  floating  motion,  and  moves  in 


FIG.  6. — 1,  Pulsating  vacuole ;  2,  food  in  f ood-vacuole. 

a  circular  course  when  it  moves  at  all.  But  it 
remains  in  one  place  for  long  periods  of  time. 

It  can  travel,  but  seldom  does.  It  can  eat, 
but  seldom  does.  It  can  withdraw  its  rays, 
and  flatten  itself  like  an  amoeba,  but  seldom 
does. 

Although  it  remains  so  quiet  that  one  has 
full  opportunity  for  observing  it,  little  is  known 
of  its  life  history.  It  is  beautiful  and  nothing 
more ;  and  so  it  lives,  and  nothing  more,  re- 


KHIZOPODS.  21 

minding  one  of  the  question  the  page  put  to 
Brutus's  wife  : 

"  What  shall  I  do  ?    Run  to  the   Capitol,  and  nothing 

more  ? 
And  so  return,  and  nothing  more  "  ? 

But  beauty  to  be  really  interesting  must  be 
coupled  with  energy  and  vivacity,  and  the  sun 
animalcule  has  little  of  either. 

Yet  it  is  fond  of  society,  and  is  often  seen 
closely  associated  with  others,  their  spines  in- 
terlaced, the  animacules  piled  in  a  heap,  some- 
times to  the  number  of  fifteen  in  one  colony. 

The  actinophrys  multiplies  by  division,  and 
the  colonies  are  made  by  successive  divisions. 

You  will  occasionally  see  some  small  animal 
entangled  among  the  spines,  struggling  to  get 
away.  Sometimes  it  escapes ;  but  when  it 
does  not  it  sticks  fast  to  the  adhesive  ray  that 
slowly  retracts  into  the  body  of  the  sun  animal- 
cule, which  forms  a  bubble  or  vacuole  to  en- 
compass it.  For  the  actinophrys,  like  the 
amoeba,  throws  itself  around  its  food  and  has 
no  permanent  mouth.  If  one  ray  is  not  enough 
to  hold  the  struggling  victim,  other  rays  bend 
over  to  assist,  and  the  poor  creature  is  swal- 
lowed alive,  and  may  be  seen  to  squirm  after  it 
is  inside  its  captor. 

After  partaking  of  food  the  animalcule  be- 


22  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

comes  smoother  in  appearance,  the  bubbles  be- 
coming smaller  and  less  prominent. 

This  actinophrys  is  devoid  of  organs  of 
sense,  circulation,  respiration,  or  even  diges- 
tion. Yet  it  measures  its  efforts  by  the  neces- 
sity :  One  ray  does  the  work  if  it  can ;  if  not, 
a  second  and  third  and  fourth  ray  comes  to  its 
assistance. 

Doesn't  this  look  like  an  approach  to  intel- 
ligence ? 

But  the  senseless  animal  does  other  things 
which  look  as  if  it  possessed  not  only  sense  but 
reason.  Mr.  Carter  relates  that  an  actinophrys 
was  in  a  vessel  where  there  were  vegetable 
cells  containing  starch  particles.  One  of  the 
cells  became  ruptured,  allowing  a  trifle  of  the 
contents  to  protrude  through  the  crevice.  The 
actinophrys  came,  extracted  a  starch  grain,  and 
crept  to  a  distance  to  devour  it.  It  then  re- 
turned, extracting  grains  from  the  interior  of  the 
cell,  always  retiring  with  each  grain,  and  return- 
ing again,  as  if  it  knew  the  way  back  and  remem- 
bered where  starch  grains  were  to  be  found. 

At  another  time  Mr.  Carter  saw  an  actino- 
phrys station  itself  close  to  the  ripe  spore  cell 
of  a  plant,  and  when  the  cell  burst  and  the 
young  zoospores  came  out,  the  actinophrys 
caught  every  one  of  them;  retiring  after  the 


RHIZOPODS.  23 

last  one  was  caught,  as  if  instinctively  con- 
scious that  no  more  remained. 

The  actinophrys  is  afraid  of  its  cousin,  the 
Mistress  Amoeba,  and  tries  to  avoid  her,  for  the 
amoeba  tears  off  bits  of  the  sun  animalcule,  de- 
vouring it  piecemeal. 

The  Vampyrella  looks  like  a  reddish-yel- 
low actinophrys,  but  it  can  withdraw  and  pro- 
trude its  rays  with  greater  celerity.  It  can 
pierce  a  spirogyra  cell  and  extract  its  contents 
in  five  minutes,  or  can  station  itself  outside 
the  partition  between  two  cells  and  suck  the 
contents  of  both  at  once.  It  has  been  seen 
to  devour  the  contents  of  seven  cells  at  one 
meal,  growing  very  portly  in  the  operation. 
Probably  because  it  sucks  the  life-blood  of 
plants,  it  was  named  after  the  vampire,  a  bat 
which  is  supposed  to  suck  the  blood  of  ani- 
mals and  men. 

When  it  has  not  eaten  too  much,  the  vam- 
pyrella  can  squeeze  itself  into  an  empty  plant- 
cell  and  emerge  in  a  long  train,  which  gathers 
itself  up  again  into  a  rounded  body.  When 
it  reproduces,  it  "  hatches  "  into  three  or  four 
animals,  which  begin  to  protrude  their  rays 
before  they  are  out  of  the  shell  or  cyst. 


IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 


IV. 

( Clathrulina  elegans.) 

If  you  find  one  of  these  sun  animalcules 
living  in  a  glass  house  on  the  top  of  a  glass 
stem,  like  a  flower  on  a  stalk,  you  may  know 
it  to  be  the  Clathrulina  elegans. 


PIG.  7. — Clathrulina  elegans. 


EHIZOPODS.  25 

The  beautiful  crystal  house  has  many  win- 
dows, through  which  the  clathrulina  protrudes 
fine  rays,  which  act  as  arms.  When  hungry,  it 
reaches  out  and  brings  its  food  in  through  the 
windows.  It  never  uses  these  raylike  pseudo- 
podia  for  feet,  because  it  has  stretched  out  one 
into  a  stem,  and  has  fastened  itself  so  that  it 
can  travel  no  more. 

This,  and  the  actinophrys,  the  arcella,  and 
the  amoeba  are  all  called  rhizopods — rhizo, 
meaning  root ;  pod,  meaning  foot — because  the 
pseudopodia  of  the  arcella  and  amoeba  are  like 
coarse,  fleshy  roots,  and  the  rays  of  the  two 
former  are  like  fine,  threadlike  roots.  But  the 
clathrulina  is  the  most  truly  "  root-footed "  of 
all,  because  it  has  transformed  one  of  its  rays 
into  a  genuine  root  stalk. 

Both  the  sun  animalcule  and  the  clathru- 
lina multiply  by  division.  But  the  young 
clathrulina  finds  itself  a  prisoner  in  the  beau- 
tiful glass  house ;  and  it  says : 

"  I  mean  to  make  my  escape  somehow,  and 
since  there  are  no  doors  I'll  just  climb  out  at 
the  window." 

So  out  it  goes,  though  it  has  to  squeeze 
itself  into  a  long  string  of  colorless  protoplasm 
in  getting  through. 

But  it  soon  rounds  up  into  a  ball  of  bub- 


26  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

bles,  and  lives  free  like  an  actinophrys  until  it 
gets  over  its  childish  pranks,  when  it  puts  out 
a  ray,  takes  root,  and  wanders  no  more. 

You  have  heard  of  the  man  who  founded 
his  house  on  a  rock,  so  that  it  withstood  all  the 
tempests,  and  of  the  one  who  founded  his  on 
sand,  so  that  it  washed  away  ? 

The  clathrulina's  house  has  a  foundation 
less  firm  than  the  shifting  sands,  for  it  is  built 
upon  the  fragile  rootlets  of  the  duckweed. 

And  the  storms  come  and  the  floods  rise 
and  the  waves  beat  vehemently  upon  that 
house,  and  it  sways  in  the  bayou,  and  some- 
times it  stands,  but  when  it  falls,  great  is  the 
ruin  thereof. 

And  when  it  begins  to  crack,  the  little 
clathrulina  thinks  an  earthquake  has  come ; 
and,  though  it  never  left  its  house  before,  it 
rushes  out  colorless  and  affrighted  to  die  in 
the  great  watery  highway,  crushed  amid  the 
wreck  and  debris  of  the  flood. 


CHAPTER  H. 

THE   WHIPLASHEKS. 

(Flagellata.) 
I. 

THERE  are  some  little  chaps  in  the  green 
scum  of  the  pools  who  ride  along  by  simply 
flipping  their  whiplashes. 

The  whip]ash  is  called  a  flagellum  (which 
means  whiplash),  and  the  animals  themselves 
are  called  Flagellata  because  they  have  the 
flagellum. 

When  one  of  them  is  going  on  a  journey, 
it  keeps  the  lash  pointed  ahead  and  thrown 
into  curves  or  undulations,  which  pull  against 
the  water  as  a  bird's  wings  do  against  the  air, 
thus  drawing  the  animal  fbrward.  The  lash  is 
exceedingly  flexible,  and  when  the  creature  is 
at  rest  the  lash  /twists  about,  reaching  back 
over  or  back  under  the  body,  as  if  searching 
for  something  it  has  lost,  or  guarding  the  body 
from  the  attack  of  some  enemy. 

4  27 


28 


IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 


One  of  the  marine  species,  called  Nocti* 
luca  (light  of  the  night),  shines  at  night  like 
glowing  phosphorus,  making  the  sea  look  like 


FIG.  8. — Various  stages  in  the  development  of  Euglena  viridis : 
a,  red  eye  spot ;  6,  pulsating  vacuole ;  c,  nucleus ;  7,  preparing 
to  form  spores. 

fire,  and  causing  the  superstitious  sailors  to  feel 
eerie  and  grewsome. 

This  phosphorescence  is  a  curious  substi- 
tute that  Nature  has  provided  in  the  absence 
of  other  light ;  for  down  in  the  deep  sea,  liv- 
ing in  the  cold,  dark  waters  where  the  rays  of 
the  sun  can  not  penetrate,  are  myriads  of  crea- 
tures which  are  obliged  to  light  their  own  path- 


THE  WHIPLASHERS.  29 

way  by  the  phosphorescent  lamps  they  carry 
with  them,  as  men  who  work  in  dark  mines 
light  their  way  by  lamps  worn  upon  their  caps. 

The  prettiest  of  the  fresh- water  species  are 
the  red  and  the  green  euglena,  which  look  like 
slender  willow  leaves  with  the  flagellum  for  a 
leaf  stalk. 

But  you  will  know  at  once  that  the  object 
at  which  you  are  looking  is  not  a  leaf,  because 
it  can  change  its  course,  and  does  not  drift 
aimlessly,  but  has  the  movement  of  a  creature 
which  is  going  somewhere.  So  potent  is  will- 
power even  in  this  incipient  stage  that  it  trans- 
forms this  leaf  from  an  inert  thing  into  a  pur- 
poseful being. 

There  is  one  species  of  these  animals,  prob- 
ably the  Astasia,  which  is  colorless,  and  has  a 
square,  notched  posterior,  and  a  body  so  lim- 
ber that  it  can  be  rolled  back  upon  itself  so  as 
to  resemble  an  irregular  ball. 

The  Euglena  triqueta  is  three-sided,  and 
ends  in  a  stiff  point  instead  of  a  flagellum. 
Its  body  is  not  flexible,  so  it  has  to  go  tum- 
bling along  in  the  water  like  a  leaf  blown  by 
the  wind. 

The  red,  or  Euglena  sanguined,  is  bright 
crimson,  and,  when  abundant,  gives  the  water 
a  reddish  tinge. 


30  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

The  Euglena  viridis  is  of  a  beautiful  green 
color,  with  a  crimson  eye-spot  near  the  base 
of  the  flagellum.  When  seen  in  shoals  it  makes 
the  water  appear  green. 

Both  these  varieties  have  flexible  bodies. 
They  double  and  twist  as  readily  as  the  lash 
or  filament;  but  when  traveling  they  move 
smoothly,  revolving  on  their  long  axes.  They 
have  pulsating  vacuoles  near  the  anterior  bor- 
der, and  nuclei  near  the  middle. 

The  green  euglena  retains  its  shape  and 
color  if  it  dries  on  the  slide  of  the  microscope, 
but  the  crimson  eye-spot  fades.  When  one  of 
them  becomes  aged,  since  he  has  no  hair  to  lose 
color  by  turning  gray,  he  loses  the  color  of 
his  eye. 

Have  you  noticed  that  this  is  the  first 
semblance  of  an  eye  with  which  you  have  met 
among  these  microscopic  animals  ?  This  is  Na- 
ture's first  experiment  in  eye-making,  and  it 
does  not  seem  to  be  very  successful,  for  this 
spot  is  not  a  true  eye.  It  is  probably  no  more 
than  an  organ  which  can  distinguish  light  from 
darkness,  as  you,  with  closed  eyes,  can  tell 
when  you  pass  from  shade  into  sunlight.  It  is 
the  prophecy  of  an  eye ;  for  somehow,  in  the 
lower  forms,  Nature  is  always  giving  us  a  hint 
of  what  she  is  going  to  do  by  and  by,  just  as, 


THE  WHIPLASHERS.  31 

in  the  higher  forms,  she  is  always  recapitulat- 
ing what  she  has  already  done,  causing  each 
higher  animal,  in  the  earliest  period  of  its 
existence,  to  resemble  various  types  of  lower 
animals. 

The  Flagellata  live  in  water,  yet  they  can 
survive  a  long  drought.  When  the  water  in 
the  pond  dries,  they  roll  into  a  ball,  as  the 
amoeba  does  when  it  receives  a  charge  of  elec- 
tricity, and  seem  to  exude  a  shell  or  coat  as  the 
cabbage  worm  does  when  it  rests  before  chang- 
ing into  a  butterfly. 

These  small  creatures  can  endure  more  heat 
than  man  can.  If  the  thermometer  registers 
112°,  the  papers  are  filled  with  accounts  of 
sunstrokes.  But  the  temperature  must  be  180° 
F.  before  the  Euglena  News  can  publish  such 
items,  and  must  be  70°  higher  still  before  the 
race  becomes  extinct  and  the  last  euglena  man 
is  dead ;  for  the  spores  survive  greater  heat 
than  the  adults. 

These  Flagellata  are  getting  up  in  the  world 
as  compared  with  the  Amoebae.  The  interior 
of  their  bodies,  like  that  of  the  amoeba,  is  a 
soft  substance  called  sarcode  /  but  they  have 
a  mouth  which  stays  in  one  place  at  the  base 
of  the  flagellum,  so  they  always  know  where  to 
find  it — and  that,  you'll  admit,  is  a  great  con- 


32  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

venience;  the  flagellum  is  a  permanent  organ, 
which  doesn't  shrink  back  into  the  body ;  then, 
too,  they  have  three  or  four  ways  of  increasing 
their  numbers : 

1.  They  multiply  by  long  division — i.  e.,  by 
dividing  along  the  length  of  the  body — which 
process  is  called   longitudinal   fission.     When 
they  do  this,  the  division  begins  in  some  of 
them  by  the  division  of  the  flagellum,  which 
is  an  amusing  process.     They  fasten  it  by  the 
free  end,  and  then  wriggle  or  vibrate  it  until  it 
splits  into  two  shreds. 

2.  They  multiply   by  short  division — i.  e., 
by  dividing  across  the  long  axis.     This  is  called 
transverse  fission. 

3.  They   break  up  into  spores  or  seeds  of 
animals  (7,  8,  Pig.  10). 

When  an  animal  is  about  to  form  spores, 
it  withdraws  all  its  organs  of  locomotion  and 
prehension,  becoming  round  and  quiescent. 
The  outer  part  becomes  a  sack  or  cyst,  within 
which  numerous  small  bodies  form  and  grow 
until  the  cyst  wall  breaks  and  the  spores  or 
germs  of  new  animals  fly  out. 

This  method  of  reproduction  allies  the  ani- 
mal with  the  plant. 


THE   WHIPLASHERS. 


33 


II. 

Some  parents  have  a  child's  picture  taken 
every  year  so  as  to  keep  a  series  of  photographs 
which  shall  be  a  record  of  his  changing  fea- 
tures and  growth  through  life. 

Figs.  9  and  10  show  a  series  of  pictures, 
giving  the  life  history  of  a  flagellate  monad 
whose  name  is  Dallingeria  Drysdali. 

This  is  a  wee  little  thing  about  4o*0o  of  an 
inch  in  length,  which  travels  gracefully  and 


FIG.  9.— Dallingeria. 

swiftly,  ordinarily  seeming  very   serious    and 
demure. 

But  every  little  while  it  appears  to  feel  the 
need  of  some  gymnastic  exercise.    So  it  anchors 


34  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

itself  by  the  free  ends  of  its  posterior  flagella, 
and,  by  coiling  them  up  tight,  draws  itself 
back;  then,  by  uncoiling,  it  suddenly  springs 
forward ;  again  it  coils  and  draws  back  and 
again  springs  forward ;  repeating  this  jumping 
process  over  and  over  again,  seeming  to  think 
it  no  end  of  fun. 

The  Dallingeria  divides  by  longitudinal 
fission,  splitting  the  anterior  flagellum  into 
two,  in  from  one  half  to  one  minute.  The 
whole  process  of  division  occupies  not  more 
than  seven  minutes,  and  is  repeated  at  intervals 
of  a  few  moments ;  so  the  Dallingeria  need  not 
be  lonesome.  If  one  boy  tires  and  will  not 
play  the  jumping  game  any  longer,  the  other 
can  make  himself  a  new  companion  in  seven 
minutes. 

After  repeated  divisions  of  this  sort  our 
little  monad  makes  a  great  departure  from  its 
ordinary  customs  of  life. 

Some  of  the  individuals  have  changed  their 
appearance  by  absorbing  the  two  lateral  fla- 
gella,  enlarging  the  nucleus,  and  forming  a 
granular  band  across  the  middle  of  the  body 
(5,  Fig.  9).  One  of  these  individuals  comes 
swimming  up  to  our  little  monad  as  it  springs 
about  coiling  and  uncoiling  its  flagella,  and 
immediately  the  two  love  and  wed  and  go 


THE  WHIPLASHERS. 


35 


sailing  out  into   the   west  together   (6,  Fig. 
10). 

In  four  or  five  hours  the  trailing  flagella  of 
the  one  and  the  anterior  flagella  and  nuclei  of 


FIG.  10. — Dallingeria  and  family. 

both  have  disappeared,  the  two  are  one,  and 
look  like  a  sack  from  which  fine  flour  is  issu- 
ing (7,  Fig.  10).  The  particles  of  this  fine  flour 
increase  in  size  until  in  about  four  hours  they 
are  seen  to  be  perfectly  formed  flagellate 
monads  (8,  9,  10,  Fig.  10). 

The  godfathers  of  these  little  creatures, 
Messrs.  Dallinger  and  Drysdale,  after  whom 
they  are  named  and  who  first  introduced  them 
to  the  public,  have,  with  true  paternaL  fond- 


36  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

ness,  left  many  more  photographs  of  them  and 
a  much  fuller  account  of  the  incidents  of  their 
childhood  than  can  be  given  here.  But  what 
has  been  given  may  fairly  be  taken  as  a  brief 
genealogy  of  the  old  and  distinguished  Flagella 
Family. 


CHAPTER  IH. 

CILIATA. 

You  have  seen  the  amoeba  traveling  by 
means  of  pseudopodia;  the  arcella  by  means 
of  pseudopods  and  miniature  balloons ;  the 
sun  animalcule  by  means  of  spines ;  and  the 
Flagellata  by  means  of  delicate  whiplashes. 

The  fish  uses  fins  for  feet ;  the  tadpole,  a 
posterior  rudder ;  the  leech  uses  suckers  ;  the 
bird  has  wings  to  tread  the  air;  the  snake 
walks  with  its  ribs,  setting  them  forward  alter- 
nately on  either  side  as  a  boy  does  his  feet ; 
and  when  you  come  to  the  animal  Man,  he  has 
a  great  variety  of  feet  or  organs  of  locomotion 
besides  his  two  legs :  for  what  is  a  sleigh,  or  a 
carriage,  or  a  boat,  or  a  bicycle,  or  a  railroad 
car,  but  another  kind  of  pseudopod  which 
man  has  extemporized  to  expedite  his  progress  ? 
All  these  are  locomotor  pseudopodia  invented 
to  enable  man  to  walk  faster. 

But  of  all  the  odd  things  which  have  been 

37 


38  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

used  in  traveling,  there  is  nothing  odder  than 
that  which  we  are  about  to  investigate.  It  is 
nothing  else  than  very  short,  fine  hairs. 

We  are  now  to  study  a  large  class  of  ani- 
mals, including  the  bell  animalcule,  paramoeci- 
um,  stentor,  vaginicola,  and  many  more,  which 
are  all  known  as  Ciliata,  because  they  propel 
themselves  by  fanning  the  water  with  cilia  or 
short  hairs. 

The  Ciliata  knew  how  to  "feather"  be- 
fore man  ever  handled  an  oar,  and  they  were 
the  inventors  of  the  "  back  stroke  "  ;  for  many 
of  them  can  travel  backward  as  readily  as  for- 
ward by  reversing  the  action  of  their  cilia. 

Some  of  them  use  cilia  to  assist  in  swallow- 
ing their  food,  having  a  funnel  or  oesophagus 
lined  with  hairs  which  carry  the  food  down 
with  the  currents  of  water. 

These  animals  are  an  advance  upon  the 
foregoing  ones  ;  for  these  all  have  a  perma- 
nent mouth  orifice,  and  a  permanent  place  to 
eject  waste  food  ;  their  vacuoles  are  better  de- 
veloped; and  some  even  have  a  dental  arma- 
ture or  experiment  in  the  direction  of  teeth. 

Nature  is  beginning  to  differentiate  or  set 
aside  portions  of  protoplasm  for  special  uses, 
and  to  keep  organs  ready-made  instead  of  hav- 
ing to  make  them  every  time  they  are  needed 


CILIATA.  39 

Hence  these  Ciliata  have  a  funnel  always 
ready  to  receive  food,  and  they  keep  hands  to 
secure  food  and  feet  with  which  to  travel 
always  in  stock,  in  the  shape  of  cilia. 


I. 

( Vorticellce.) 

Men  go  fishing  with  flies  and  worms,  but 
the  Ciliates  go  fishing  with  these  invisible  hairs. 
And  this  is  the  way  they  do  it :  They  keep 
these  cilia  falling  down  one  after  another  in  a 
circle.  Round  and  round  they  go,  dropping 
and  picking  themselves  up  again  so  fast  that 
you  can  scarcely  see  them.  This  creates  a  whirl- 
pool or  vortex  in  the  water,  which  catches  the 
particles  of  food  in  its  eddies,  and  carries  them 
down  the  whirlpool  into  the  little  animal's 
throat.  It  is  because  they  make  this  vortex 
that  some  are  called  Vorticellw. 

These  are  also  called  bell  animalcules,  be- 
cause they  are  shaped  like  a  bell,  or  a  dainty 
china  cup. 

They  are  the  dearest  little  creatures  in  the 
world — so  shy,  so  pretty,  so  graceful,  so  charm- 
ing. You  are  not  a  complete,  all-around  boy 


IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 


or  girl  if  you  are  not  exceedingly  pleased  the 
first  time  you  see  a  live  bell  animalcule. 


FIG.  11. —  Vorticella  nebulifera,  showing  development  of  individ- 
ual stages  A  to  F  (E  and  F  free). 


CILIATA. 


Lift  a  slip  of  nasturtium  from  your  ja/r- 
diniere  and  carefully  clip  off  a  rootlet.  Put 
it  on  your  slide 
with  a  drop  of 
water,  and  you 
are  likely  to  see 
a  score  of  Vorti- 
cellce  attached  to 
the  root :  some 
with  their  beau- 
tiful cups  ex- 
panded at  the  end 
of  long,  thread- 
like stems ;  some 
with  the  stem 
coiled  into  a 
spiral,  resting 
against  the  root. 

They  are 
transparent  and 
colorless  except 

for  the  food  balls;   Fl»-   12.— Bell  animalcule:    a,  ciliated 

disk;  b,  rim  or  lip;  d,  oesophagus; 

but    you    Can   See         e,  funnel ;  /,  food ;  pv,  pulsating  vac- 

the  cilia  fanning 

the  water  to  make  the  whirlpool,  and  you  will 
notice  that  when  mosses  or  small  animals  are 
caught  in  the  outer  waves  they  go  around  in 
a  circle,  sometimes  making  their  escape  when 


4:2  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

they  have  made  one  circuit,  and  sometimes 
going  round  and  round  till  they  disappear  in 
the  funnel  shown  in  Fig.  12. 

Prom  the  funnel  they  go  into  the  oesopha- 
gus, thence  into  the  body ;  and  when  the  nu- 
triment is  extracted  they  are  thrown  out  again 
at  the  funnel. 

If  coloring  matter  enters  the  body  it  is 
excreted  by  the  vacuole.  A  little  carmine  or 
aniline  blue  mixed  with  the  water  on  the  slide 
will  make  all  these  microscopic  animals  more 
beautiful,  and  will  aid  in  discovering  the  opera- 
tions which  are  carried  on  by  the  body. 

Fig.  12  represents  a  bell  animalcule  six  hun- 
dred times  its  natural  size.  Think  of  all  this 
ciliating  and  swallowing,  digesting  and  excret- 
ing going  on  in  a  creature  only  one  six-hun- 
dredth the  size  of  the  picture — a  creature  too 
small  and  ethereal  to  be  seen  at  all  by  the  un- 
aided eye  ! 

Yet  this  minute  being  has  the  sense  of 
touch  developed  to  a  remarkable  degree,  and 
when  any  other  animal  brushes  against  it  even 
lightly,  it  disappears  so  suddenly  that  you  won- 
der where  it  has  gone,  untilyou  see  it  lifting 
the  budshaped  head  from  the  mosses  and  tim- 
idly creeping  out  again. 

When  frightened   it   closes   its  house  by 


CILIATA. 


withdrawing  the  ciliary  disk,  folding  the  cilia 
in  upon  it,  contracting  the  rim,  and  coiling  the 
stem.  But  the  whole  thing  is  done  in  the 
twinkling  of  an  eye.  When  the  danger  is 


FIG.  13. —  Vorticellw :  Dividing,  budding,  coiling,  uncoiling, 

and  free. 
5 


44  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

passed  it  reverses  this  order,  unfolding  again 
like  a  bud  in  the  sunshine. 

The  stem  of  the  vorticella  contracts  by 
means  of  a  muscle  situated  in  the  interior  of 
it,  which  responds  instantly  as  if  at  the  defi- 
nite command  of  the  will.  This  is  the  first 
pronounced  case  of  differentiation  of  matter 
into  muscular  fiber. 

The  bell  animalcule  multiplies  by  longi- 
tudinal fission,  as  shown  by  Fig.  13.  The 
whole  animal  parts  down  to  the  stem,  one 
or  both  new  animals  floating  away. 

Another  mode  of  reproduction  among  them 
is  the  putting  out  of  little  buds  of  animals 
(3,  Fig.  13).  > 

The  vorticella  does  something  which  man 
is  trying  to  imitate. 

Perhaps  you  have  heard  that  a  certain  man 
in  Illinois  was  going  to  die,  or  appear  to  die, 
and  a  crop  of  barley  was  to  be  raised  on  his 
grave.  When  the  barley  ripened  his  friends 
were  to  open  the  grave,  and  he  was  to  waken 
from  his  trance  and  be  alive  again. 

Another  man,  in  Ohio,  went  into  a  hyp- 
notic sleep  and  lay  buried  in  a  cellar  for  two 
months,  at  which  time  his  friends  dug  him  up 
and  rubbed  him  into  life ;  so  said  the  Chicago 
Inter-Ocean. 


CILIATA.  45 

You  all  know  how  Dr.  Tanner  lived  forty 
days  without  food. 

The  vorticella  can  do  all  these  and  more. 
Whenever  a  famine  comes  in  Vorticel-land  the 
inhabitants  close  their  houses,  incase  them- 
selves in  cysts,  and  remain  unnourished  in- 
definitely. Or  when  there  comes  a  drought, 
and  the  water  in  the  pools  evaporates,  the  little 
creatures  huddle  together  in  the  deepest  hol- 
lows, eating  and  playing  as  happy  as  ever  till 
the  last  drop  is  gone.  Then  they  go  into  a 
trance  or  hypnotic  sleep,  lying  in  hypnocysts, 
parching  in  the  hot  sun  for  months.  But  when 
the  rains  come  and  the  pond  refills,  out  they  all 
come  trooping,  as  bright  and  lively  as  though 
they  felt  much  refreshed,  seeming  to  say  by 
their  actions,  "  Oh,  it's  a  great  lark  to  play  Rip 
Van  Winkle!" 

Sometimes  as  they  lie  encysted  in  the  dry 
bed  of  a  pond,  old  ^Eolus,  the  wind  giant, 
comes  along  and  catches  them  up  with  the 
dust  and  bears  them  captive  in  his  arms  as  he 
flies  through  space,  depositing  them  at  last  on 
roofs  to  be  carried  into  cisterns,  or  in  horse 
troughs,  or  in  eaves  clogged  with  leaves,  where 
they  waken  from  their  trances,  come  out  of 
their  cases,  grow  new  stems,  and  begin  to  turn 
about  in  all  directions,  exploring  the  new  world 


IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 


in  which  they  find  themselves.  And  if  they 
had  eyes  there  is  no  doubt  that  in  them  would 
be  that  wondering  look  which  is  in  the  eyes 
of  new  babies  as  they  turn  their  gaze  about  the 


FIG.  14.— Animated  calla-lilies. 


four-walled  world  in  which  they  lie  puzzling 
over  the  strange  environment  into  which  they 
have  come.  And  when  you  see  these  little 
bells  you  will  smile  at  them  as  you  do  at  the 
babies,  and  say :  "  Blessings  on  your  little  fuzzy 
heads  !  Where  did  you  come  from  ? " 


CILIATA.  4.7 

There  are  known  to  be  fifty  varieties  of 
Vorticellse.  Some  live  solitary,  each  on  a  stem 
of  its  own ;  others  live  in  colonies  or  villages 
on  branching  treelike  stems.  In  some  of  these 
the  individual  can  close  his  house  without 
alarming  the  rest  of  the  village,  or  the  entire 
community  can  close  up  at  once.  Others,  as 
the  epistylis,  have  a  rigid  stem,  and  only  the 
individual  can  contract. 

When  these  people  live  in  colonies,  you 
perceive  that  there  must  be  something  like 
co-operative  housekeeping,  for,  though  each 
does  his  own  fishing,  he  must  do  it  where  the 
company  is  located.  There  are  some  colonies, 
as  on  Steamer  No.  2,  Ocean  Line,  where  the 
empty  stems  seem  to  indicate  that  some  way- 
ward member  of  the  family  has  broken  his 
tether  and  has  gone  off  to  set  up  in  business 
for  himself. 

Fig.  14  shows  a  colony  of  ten  calla-lily- 
shaped  beauties  that  I  found  fishing  together. 
They  at  no  time  recoiled  singly,  but  occa- 
sionally all  sank  at  once  in  great  precipitation 
upon  the  main  stem. 

After  a  while  they  decided  that  the  fishing 
was  poor,  so  they  all  massed  together  and  emi- 
grated to  parts  unknown. 

Later  they  were  found  living  in  opulence 


48  IN  BKOOK  AND  BAYOU. 

in  a  new  country,  and  in  an  hour  or  two  they 
had  again  colonized  a  new  territory. 

When  one  of  the  solitary  Vorticellae  be- 
comes tired  of  its  dwelling  place  and  desires  to 
"go  West  and  grow  up  with  the  country,"  it 
closes  its  house  just  as  it  does  when  fright- 
ened. Then  it  breaks  camp — in  rare  instances 
carrying  the  stem  with  it,  trailing  through 
the  water.  But  usually  a  second  circle  of 

stem  coiled  and  useless.  Then  it  backs  out 
and  turns  round,  sailing  with  the  posterior 
part  foremost,  just  as  you  back  a  boat  out  and 
turn  it  around  in  order  to  row  with  the  pointed 
end  against  the  stream. 

When  it  reaches  the  far  country  which, 
though  the  goal  of  its  aspirations,  is  but  a 
neighboring  island  of  moss,  it  cuddles  down 
into  the  moss,  seeming  to  attach  itself  by  this 
last  band  of  cilia  until  it  has  time  to  grow  a 
new  stem. 

Then  the  cilia  appear  at  the  other  ex- 
tremity, and  what  was  the  anterior  part  when 
attached  before  is  again  the  anterior  or  mouth 
part  of  the  body. 

The  books  and  the  scientists  say  that  when 
a  bell  animalcule  is  preparing  to  move,  it  "  loses 


CILIATA.  49 

its  anterior  cilia  and  rim,  and  develops  pos- 
terior cilia ;  and  that  when  it  breaks  away  the 
anterior  part  becomes  posterior  and  the  mouth 
closes,  never  to  open  again.'1'1 

In  other  words,  they  would  lead  you  to  be- 
lieve that  when  the  vorticella  moves  it  stands 
on  its  head  till  it  moves  again — that  it  is  a 
sort  of  patent,  reversible,  double-action  creature 
which  can  turn  feet  into  head  and  head  into 
feet  at  pleasure. 

But  the  vorticella  itself  seems  to  have 
different  ideas  of  things,  and  protests  against 
k  the  statement  that  it  "  loses  its  rim  and  an- 
terior cilia";  1,  1',  1',  Fig.  15,  shows  one  of 
them  in  three  stages  of  preparation  for  travel. 
2,  shows  one  traveling  with  both  circles  of  cilia 
present,  the  scientists  to  the  contrary  notwith- 
standing. 

The  same  Fig.,  3,  3',  3",' 3'",  shows  one 
which  rowed  up  to  some  moss,  attached  itself, 
and,  within  two  hours  and  a  half,  grew  a  stem 
twice  its  length,  and  displayed  the  posterior 
cilia  again  as  if  prepared  to  begin  its  migrations 
anew.  So,  if  it  really  stood  on  its  head  the 
second  time  it  was  attached,  it  was  only  two 
hours  and  a  half  before  it  turned  another 
somersault  and  opened  its  first  mouth  again. 

Now,  No.  2  or  No.  3  is  a  frail  and  delicate 


50 


IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 


FIG.  15.— Vorticellse. 


creature,  and  a  scientist  is  a  great  and  powerful 
man ;  but  if  No.  2  or  No.  3  chooses  to  enter 
into  a  contest  with  the  great  scientist,  you  may 


CILIATA.  51 

be  sure  the  little  one  will  come  out  ahead. 
That's  a  way  of  little  bodies  whose  mouths 
can't  be  closed. 

And  if,  as  I  suspect,  the  Vorticellae  have 
decided  to  have  an  anterior  or  prehensile  band 
of  cilia  and  also  a  posterior  or  locomotor 
band,  and  to  keep  the  cilia  concealed  or  ab- 
sorbed into  the  body  like  true  pseudopodia 
when  not  in  use — if  they  have  decided  to  do 
this,  they'll  do  it ;  and  it's  useless  for  the  scien- 
tists to  argue  the  matter  with  them.  They  will 
go  right  along  having  their  own  way,  looking 
so  sweet  and  amiable  and  playing  so  gracefully 
that  you  will  never  know  their  pretty  ways 
are  only  a  cloak  to  hide  a  deep-laid  plot  to 
confound  the  scientists. 

As  the  bell  animalcule  sails  free,  it  assumes 
a  great  variety  of  shapes,  some  of  which  are 
only  apparent  ones,  caused  by  its  rolling  over 
in  the  water  and  presenting  different  sides  to 
view.  Sometimes  it  seems  round;  sometimes 
almost  square ;  sometimes  it  looks  like  a  basin 
or  kettle ;  and  sometimes  like  an  old-fashioned 
entailed  hat. 

They  keep  up  a  lively  fanning  of  the  water 
with  their  cilia  as  they  travel. 

But  some  of  them  are  too  cute  to  work 
their  own  laborious  passage  in  this  way.  Those, 


IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 


especially,  who  live  in  colonies  on  branched 
stems  like  to  travel  far  and  fast ;  so  they  at- 
tach themselves  to  some  larger  animal  which  is 
a  swift  sailer,  like  a  cyclops  or  the  larva  of 


PIG.  16. — Ocean-steamer  line. 

some  insect,  and  are  thus  transported  without 
effort  on  their  part. 

You  see  they  had  their  ocean-steamer  lines 
and  Great  Easterns  long  before  we  had. 

Can  you  hear  them  sing  as  they  sail — 

Oh,  a  life  on  the  ocean  wave, 
A  home  on  the  rolling  deep  ? 


CILIATA. 


53 


II. 

IN  A  GOBLET. 
( Vaginicola.) 

There  are  some  of  the  Ciliata  that  live 
in  crystal  vases.  These  vases  are  longer  than 
those  of  the  bell  animalcule,  and  the  animal 
within  is  very  elastic  and  can  extend  itself  to 
twice  the  length  of  its  inclosing  case  or  house ; 


II 

FIG.  17.— 1,  Cothurnia ;  2,  3,  4,  Vaginicolw. 

or  it  can  contract  so  as  to  lie  at  the  bottom  of 
the  vase. 

These  are  the  Vaginicola  and  Cothurnia. 
The  vase  in  which  they  live  is  called  a  lorica. 
They  are  attached  only  at  the  bottom  of  the 


54  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

lorica,  being  free  on  the  sides.  Both  they  and 
the  lorica  are  transparent ;  and  the  only  way  in 
which  you  can  distinguish  the  vaginicola  from 
the  cothurnia  is  that  the  vase  of  the  former  is 
sessile  while  that  of  the  latter  is  attached  by  a 
short  stem,  and  is  sometimes  tinged  with  brown. 

When  the  cothurnia  is  frightened  it  tips 
its  house  over,  by  bending  the  stem  or  pedicle, 
at  the  same  time  that  it  contracts  into  it  to 
escape  the  danger. 

Both  these  animals  are  of  much  the  same 
nature  as  the  bell  animalcule.  They  are  trans- 
parent, have  pulsating  vacuoles  and  crown  of 
cilia,  and  procure  food  in  the  same  manner  by 
creating  currents  in  the  water.  The  chief  dif- 
ference is  that  these  can  stretch  like  rubber 
and  the  bell  animalcule  can  not;  and  these 
look  like  flowers  in  a  vase  instead  of  flowers 
on  a  stem. 

They  do  not  need  to  leave  their  houses  to 
procure  food.  They  can  sit  at  their  doors  and 
fish,  or  can  even  remain  halfway  down  in 
the  lorica  and  produce  the  currents  and  secure 
the  food. 

Two  animals  often  live  in  one  case,  and 
look  very  cunning,  fishing  together  or  cuddling 
on  the  floor  of  their  house ;  for  they  can  be 
distinctly  seen  through  the  lorica. 


CHART  II. 


CILIATA.  55 

You  may  watch  them  gradually  lengthen 
their  bodies  until  they  lean  far  out  over  the 
top  of  the  vase,  in  their  eagerness  to  secure 
choice  morsels.  Then,  when  they  are  thus  ex- 
tended, if  you  tap  the  slide,  they  will  spring 
back  and  hide  in  the  bottom  of  the  vase,  trying 
to  make  believe  they  are  not  at  home. 

They  are  like  the  two  little  children  left 
in  charge  of  the  house,  who  scampered  under 
the  bed  when  a  stranger  tapped  at  the  door, 
and  who,  when  he  rapped  again,  timidly  sang 
out,  "  We're  all  gone  ! " 

I  have  seen  a  bell  animalcule  and  a  vagini- 
cola  play  Pussy- wants-a-corner  (1,  2,  Chart  II). 

The  former  was  anchored  near  the  latter  in 
such  position  that  every  time  it  recoiled  on  its 
stem  it  hit  against  the  vaginicola's  house,  caus- 
ing it  to  recoil  also.  When  the  bell  animalcule 
uncoiled  and  set  its  whirlpool  in  motion  again, 
out  would  come  the  vaginicola  and  set  its  whirl- 
pool going,  which  jarred  and  alarmed  the  bell 
animalcule.  Back  it  would  spring,  tapping  at 
the  vaginicola's  door  on  the  way,  and  under 
the  bed  the  vaginicola  would  dart.  Thus  they 
kept  going,  each  probably  thinking  the  other 
very  rude  to  plague  it  in  that  way,  when  all  it 
wanted  was  to  attend  quietly  to  its  own  fishing 
without  molesting  anybody. 


56  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

The  young  of  the  VaginicolcB  come  from 
true  buds  and  swim  about  freely  for  awhile, 
settling  down  at  length  and  forming  a  lorica  in 
which  to  dwell ;  for,  like  the  arcella  and  clathru- 
Una,  they  have  to  build  their  own  dwellings. 
Animals,  you  see,  are  like  people :  some  are 
"  born  with  a  silver  spoon  in  their  mouths  " — that 
is,  with  a  fortune  already  provided ;  and  some 
are  born  destitute  and  are  obliged  to  take  care 
of  themselves  and  build  their  own  houses. 

If  you  examine  minutely  all  the  members  of 
the  vaginicolan  family  you  may  spy  out  one  of 
Nature's  secrets  which  she  never  breathed  to 
anybody  until  long  after  she  made  these  proto- 
zoans. You  have  already  noticed  that  Nature 
was  beginning  to  make  loricas,  into  which  the 
animals  could  retreat  in  times  of  danger.  Now 
the  secret  you  may  discover  is  that  she  already 
had  in  mind  a  strong,  hard  house,  like  the  snail's, 
into  which  the  owner  could  withdraw,  closing 
the  door  behind  him  to  bar  out  intruders ;  and, 
while  she  was  working  among  these  Vaginicolae, 
she  was  experimenting  on  just  such  a  house  as 
this.  You  will  find  the  snail's  house  closed  se- 
curely by  the  horny  operculum  he  draws  into 
the  opening ;  and  the  Pyxicola  has  a  similar 
operculum  to  close  his  vase.  Attached  to  the 
side  of  its  lorica  the  Thuricola  has  a  valve 


CILIATA. 


57 


which  closes  when  the  animal  shrinks  down 
into  its  case,  as  the  lid  closes  over  the  nest  of 
the  trapdoor  spider.  Think  of  spiders  and  pro- 


FIG.  18.— 1,  Pyxicola;  2,  Thuricola. 

tozoans  having  actual  doors  which  swing  on 
hinges ! 

Who  knows  of  what  else  beside  spiders  and 
snails  Nature  was  thinking  when  she  made  the 
thuricola  ?  She  may  have  been  revolving  in  her 
mind  schemes  concerning  an  animal  called  Man, 
who  should  have  a  lorica  of  brick  or  stone  with 
an  electric  bell  to  ring  open  the  valve. 

But  we  are  prying  too  far  into  Nature's 


58  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

plans,  and  must  go  back  into  the  protozoan 
world  where  she  is  at  work,  and  where  one 
morning  No.  3,  Chart  II,  appeared  on  the  stage 
of  action,  in  a  beautiful  crystal  case.  An  hour 
later,  tired  of  single  blessedness,  it  had  changed 
into  4, — two  twisted  together  with  cilia  playing. 

After  a  time  they  extended  themselves  be- 
yond the  lorica,  making  great  whirlpools.  A 
diatom  gently  sailing  that  way  was  caught  in 
the  current  and  carried  round  and  round  for 
fifteen  minutes,  now  in  wide,  now  in  narrow 
circles,  now  fast,  now  slow.  His  little  elec- 
tric launch  had  a  hard  time  with  the  buffeting 
waves.  When  he  at  length  escaped,  he  settled 
down  in  a  clump  of  reeds,  "  quite  chapfallen." 

He  seemed  to  be  reciting  poetry,  and  to  be 
saying  : 

We  have  had  enough  of  action,  and  of  motion  we, 

Boiled  to  starboard,  rolled  to  larhoard,  when  the  surge 
was  seething  free, 

Where  the  wallowing  monster  spouted  his  foam  foun- 
tains in  the  sea. 

Death  is  the  end  of  life  ;  ah  !  why  should  life  all  labor 
be? 

Let  us  alone.     Is  there  any  peace 

In  ever  climbing  up  the  climbing  wave  ? 

All  things  have  rest .    Let  us  alone. 

Presently  a  little  brilliantly  green,  transparent 
paramcecium,  scurrying  merrily  along,  fell  into 


CILIATA.  59 

this  same  vaginicolan  Chary bdis.  He  struggled 
bravely  for  awhile,  and  after  many  giddy  revo- 
lutions was  cast  upon  a  reef  of  vegetation, 
utterly  worn  and  fagged  with  the  battle  of  life. 

He  merrily  scurried  no  more ;  and  his  rea- 
sons for  no  longer  exerting  himself  were  the 
same  that  Brer  Jeems's  wife  gave  for  his  not 
sawing  Brer  Kemus's  wood : 

"  Hope  you'll  'scuse  Jeems,"  she  said.  "  He 
can't  ver'  well  wuk  to-day.  Fust  place,  he  got 
no  time ;  second  place,  he  doan  feel  fust-rate 
dis  mawnin' ;  third  place,  he's  dade? 


III. 
THE  TRUMPET  ANIMALCULE. 

(Stentor.) 

If  you  try  to  get  a  snap  shot  with  your 
kodak  at  a  trumpet  animalcule,  you  will  obtain 
such  a  variety  of  photographs  as  will  seem  to 
represent  a  score  of  different  creatures  instead 
of  a  single  one.  Fig.  19  gives  a  collection  of  pho- 
tographs of  these  animals,  taken  with  a  pencil. 
The  Stentor  lives  either  solitary  or  in  colonies. 
At  times,  when  attached,  it  twists  on  its  stem, 
looking  like  a  half -filled  balloon  swaying  about 


60 


IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 


and  tugging  at  its  ropes,  wrinkled  and  grooved 
at  the  bottom.  There  are  cilia  distributed  over 
the  whole  body  of  the  stentor,  but  in  some  of 


FIG.  19.— Colony  of  stentors. 

these  figures  (2,  3)  you  will  notice  a  cluster  of 
cilia  which  at  times  appears  external,  at  other 
times  internal.  This  cluster  is  the  budding 
head  of  a  young  stentor;  for  the  pulsating 


CILIATA.  61 

vacuole  divides  and  the  mouth  and  throat  of 
the  offspring  appear  before  there  is  any  sign 
of  division  in  the  parent.  This  is  another  case 
of  transverse  fission.  The  mouth  of  the  new 
creature  appears  about  halfway  down  the  tube 
of  the  old  one.  When  the  division  is  complete, 
both  swim  away  smaller  in  size,  resembling  an 
elongated  bell  animalcule.  Two  hours  are  oc- 
cupied in  this  process  of  multiplication. 

The  disk  of  some  stentors  looks  like  a  ripe 
sunflower  with  the  seeds  removed.  The  rim  or 
lip  around  the  disk  seems  to  be  so  flexible 
that  they  can  "  pout  their  lips  "  and  "  make 
mouths." 

The  indigestible  food  is  expelled  from  the 
mouth  or  funnel.  Occasionally  one  of  them  tries 
to  swallow  an  object  larger  than  its  throat,  and, 
after  repeated  efforts,  is  obliged  to  relinquish 
the  undertaking  and  eject  the  whole  mass. 

A  stentor  has  lived  for  three  days  under  a 
cover  glass,  surrounded  with  tallow  to  prevent 
evaporation  of  the  water,  and  has  seemed  to 
enjoy  his  walled  fortress. 

They  usually  contract  to  avoid  danger  ;  but 
sometimes  they  fall  over  and  lie  at  full  length 
till  the  disturbance  has  passed.  They  are  not  as 
timid  as  the  vaginicola,  and  pay  no  attention 
when  you  tap  the  slide.  Do  you  suppose  that 


62  IN   BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

is  because  the  vaginicola  can  hear,  and  the 
stentor  is  deaf  ? 

Some  of  the  stentors  are  always  rovers  ;  oth- 
ers remain  for  life  attached  to  one  place ;  while 
still  others  are  able  to  attach  and  free  them- 
selves at  pleasure.  These  latter  take  a  home- 
stead and  live  there  as  long  as  they  like  the 
climate  and  the  neighbors,  and  when  they  are 
no  longer  pleased  they  pull  up  stakes  and  move 
along,  pre-empting  another  claim. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  the  stentors  are 
not  very  graceful ;  neither  have  they  fine  fig- 
ures ;  but  they  try  to  remedy  these  defects  by 
wearing  delicate  red,  blue,  green,  brown,  black, 
and  amber  color. 

It  would  scarcely  be  expected  that  a  crea- 
ture which  is  itself  microscopic  would  be  found 
to  have  still  smaller  animals  parasitic  upon  it, 
but  the  stentor  furnishes  food  and  home  to  nu- 
merous beings  which  were  at  first  supposed  to 
be  its  children,  but  which  are  of  alien  blood. 
The  same  is  true  of  nearly  every  animal  we 
shall  find  in  the  bayou,  from  the  comparatively 
hardy  cyclops  to  the  ethereal  bell  animalcule. 


CILIATA.  63 

IV. 

LIVING  SLIPPERS. 
^  (ParamcBcium.) 

If  yon  place  a  dead  clam  or  a  bit  of  beef- 
steak in  water  and  keep  it  in  a  warm  place  for 
a  day  or  two,  the  water  will  be  swarming  with 
minnte  white  specks  in  constant  motion.  They 
are  barely  visible  when  held  to  the  light  in  a 
glass  dish.  They  are  the  Paramoecium  cauda- 

,  which  looks  flat,  though  it  is  slightly  con- 


FIG.  20. — Paramwcium :  a,  vacuole  distributing  secretion ;  6,  vac- 
uole  filling ;  c,  nucleus ;  d,  oesophagus ;  e,  funnel ;  /,  food 
balls ;  g,  temporary  anus. 

vex  on  the  back,  and  which  has  but  one  vacu- 
ole ;  and  the  Paramcecium  aurelia,  which  is 
somewhat  prismatic  or  three-sided,  and  has 
two  pulsatile  vacuoles  that  close  alternately. 
These  animals  may  be  found  in  your  nasturtium 
vase,  or  they  may  be  bred  in  smaller  numbers 
in  water  in  which  hay  or  any  vegetable  matter 
is  decomposing ;  but  they  are  larger  and  more 


64  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

numerous  in  water  containing  meat ;  and  clam 
soup  is  their  favorite  diet. 

When  found  in  water  rich  in  decaying  vege- 
table matter  they  are  full  of  green  and  reddish 
food,  and  the  richness  of  their  color  is  propor- 
tionate to  the  richness  of  their  pasture.  Usu- 
ally they  are  almost  colorless,  and  some  species 
are  so  diminutive  that  under  a  high  magnify- 
ing power  they  look  no  larger  than  a  small 
pansy  seed.  Those  which  appear  to  the  naked 
eye  as  minute  white  specks  seem  almost  two 
inches  long  when  under  an  ordinary  school  mi- 
croscope. 

The  aurelia  is  often  called  the  slipper  ani- 
malcule because  it  resembles  a  moccasin  or  low 
slipper  badly  run  down  at  the  heel.  The  open- 
ing in  the  slipper  for  the  entrance  of  the  foot 
is,  in  the  paramoecium,  the  funnel  leading  to 
the  oesophagus,  and  is  lined  with  cilia  w^hich 
fan  the  water  to  bring  particles  of  food  into  the 
funnel.  The  food  of  many  of  these  ciliates  is 
made  into  balls  before  it  leaves  the  oesopha- 
gus and  enters  the  sarcode  or  soft  substance, 
through  which  it  makes  a  circuit  of  the  body 
before  the  waste  portion  is  ejected.  Owing  to 
the  numerous  vacuoles  formed  around  the  food 
balls,  the  ciliates  have  been  called  the  "  poly- 
gastria,"  or  many-stomached.  There  are  peo- 


CILIATA.  65 

pie  that  live  to  eat,  who  must  envy  these  crea- 
tures their  numerous  stomachs. 

The  hairs  which  line  the  funnel  are  the  pre- 
hensile cilia,  since  they  take  the  place  of  hands 
in  securing  food.  The  locomotor  cilia  are  dis- 
tributed over  the  whole  surface  of  the  body, 
acting  as  oars  and  propelling  the  animal  like 
an  ancient  galley  manned  by  a  hundred  rowers. 
Many  an  unwary  victim  sliding  down  the  funnel 
throat,  gets  a  free  ride,  like  Jonah,  but  finds  it- 
self in  a  dangerous  craft  and  one  likely  to  cap- 
size, for  the  paramcecium  often  sets  out  with 
a  long,  rolling  motion,  taking  a  spiral  course 
through  the  water. 

The  paramoecium  is  cosmopolitan  in  habit, 
living  in  all  waters  and  accommodating  itself 
to  a  great  variety  of  conditions. 

The  nucleus  is  club-shaped,  and  when  sin- 
gle is  located  near  the  center ;  when  there  are 
two  they  are  located  near  the  extremities.  The 
same  is  true  of  the  pulsating  vacuoles.  The 
vacuole  is  a  rudimentary  heart,  whose  purpose, 
like  that  of  other  hearts,  is  the  circulation  of 
the  fluid  secreted.  A  heart,  you  know,  is  a 
pumping  machine,  with  pipes  so  laid  as  to  irri- 
gate every  part  of  the  body. 

Paramoecii  can  bend  and  twist  their  bodies, 
and  often  amuse  themselves  by  rolling  over 


66  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

and  over  with  a  swift,  graceful  motion.  At 
other  times  they  anchor  or  attach  themselves 
by  one  extremity,  moving  the  other  around  in 
a  circle. 

Sometimes  they  gambol  about  in  the  water, 
disporting  themselves  like  seals  in  the  tanks  at 
the  parks. 

The  space  between  the  slide  and  the  cover 
glass  used  with  a  microscope  is  very  small,  yet 
it  is  sufficient  to  admit  three  layers  of  these  ani- 
mals. In  their  gambols  it  occasionally  happens 
that  at  the  same  time  one  darts  under  and 
another  over  the  back  of  a  third  without  dis- 
turbing it. 

The  paramoecium  ia  soft  and  slightly  elas- 
tic, and  can  squeeze  through  channels  among 
the  mosses,  which  are  narrower  than  its 
body. 

The  bits  of  moss  are  islands  and  continents 
to  little  things  like  slipper  animalcules.  They 
go  in  and  out,  exploring  the  bays  and  rounding 
the  capes  as  if  they  had  a  curiosity  about  them, 
or  intended  making  an  atlas  of  them.  Some- 
times you  may  see  a  long  line  of  these  live  slip- 
pers, each  resting  its  toe  on  the  coast  of  a  moss 
continent,  the  whole  looking  like  a  row  of 
canoes  drawn  up  along  a  beach. 

The  paramoecium  can  endure  an  astonish- 


CILIATA. 


67 


ing  degree  of  cold.  Both  it  and  the  bell 
animalcule  may  be  found  in  water  which  has 
been  gently  stirred  until  it  is  thickened  with 
flakes  of  ice.  But  if  the  water  remains  quiet 
until  it  becomes  solid  ice,  and  is  then  thawed, 
the  animals  will  have  disappeared. 

Sometimes  a  paramcecium  becomes  weary 
of  living  alone  and  seeks  a  mate,  by  whose  side 


/  JL 

FIG.  21. — Conjugation. 

it  lives  in  such  close  companionship  that  the 
twain  are  made  one  and  remain  a  single  animal, 
either  for  an  indefinite  period  or  for  evermore. 
This  is  called  conjugation,  and  is  a  custom 
among  all  the  Ciliata  (1  and  2,  Fig.  21). 

The  Chilodon  cucuttulus  multiplies  by  both 
longitudinal  and  transverse  fission.    These  little 


68  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

creatures  roll  and  rush  about  in  a  very  amus- 
ing manner,  and  the  two  kinds  of  division 
might  be  considered  an  optical  illusion,  except 
for  the  fact  that  while  the  normal  animal  ha» 
but  one  pulsating  vacuole,  when  it  comes  to 
divide,  two  pulsating  vacuoles  appear, — near  the 
attached  ends  in  those  that  divide  transversely, 
and  near  the  free  ends  of  those  that  divide  lon- 
gitudinally. 

The  paramoecium's  ordinary  method  of  mak- 
ing two  out  of  one  is  by  transverse  fission ;  and 
so  rapid  is  this  process,  and  so  often  repeated, 
that  it  has  been  computed  that  one  paramce- 
cium  may  become  the  progenitor  of  1,364,000 
in  forty-two  days. 

Now,  what  a  fortunate  thing  it  is  that  the 
original  paramoecium  is  eliminated — all  used 
up — in  the  production  of  the  children  ! 

If  old  Mother  P.  had  to  live  on  and  take 
care  of  all  the  1,364,000  children,  she'd  be 
more  distracted  than  the  old  woman  who  lived 
in  a  shoe,  and  had  so  many  children  she  didn't 
know  what  to  do, — especially  if  she  happened  to 
have  a  kind-hearted  neighbor  like  the  one  who 
gave  each  of  her  friend's  five  boys  a  tin  horn 
for  a  Christmas  present. 

Little  wonder  that  the  paramoecium's  solilo- 
quy runs  thus : 


CILIATA. 


69 


To  be,  or  not  to  be,  is  not  the  question. 

'Tis  better  not  endure  the  one  million  three  hundred  and 

sixty-four  thousand  natural  shocks 
That  flesh  is  heir  to. 
One  million  three  hundred  and  sixty-four  thousand  tin 

horns !    There's  the  respect 
That  makes  calamity  a  long  life. 
I'll  rather  end  the  ills  I  have 
Than  fly  to  others  that  I  know  not  of. 

And  she  shows  admirable  discretion. 


V. 

SWAN'S  NECK. 
(Trachelocerca  olor.) 

The  Trachelocerca  olor  is  like  a  paramcecium 
with  an  extensile  neck  which  can  be  protruded 
ten  or  twelve  times  the  length  of  the  body  or 
can  be  entirely  withdrawn  into  it.  You  will 
wonder  how  so  much  neck  can  be  contained 
in  so  little  body. 


70  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

The  trachelocerca  is  called  the  swan's  neck, 
because  the  curvings  of  its  long  throat  suggest 
those  of  the  swan's.  But  sometimes  it  dou- 
bles its  neck  around  in  a  manner  to  suggest 
the  writhing  of  a  serpent  rather  than  the 
grace  of  a  swan  ;  and  when  you  see  it  darting 
its  head  about  in  the  water  with  a  motion 


FIG.  22, — Trachelocerca. 

like  that  of  a  fowl  picking  up  food,  seemingly 
trying  to  tie  its  throat  into  a  knot,  you  are 
likely  to  say  to  it  "  You  little  goose,"  instead  of 
"  You  lovely  swan." 

Sometimes  the  neck  seems  to  be  a  proboscis 
to  seize  food  ;  sometimes  a  spy  searching  out 
the  land  and  saying,  "Where  does  my  way 
lie  ? "  Sometimes  it  seems  to  be  a  general  in- 
formation bureau,  gathering  facts  about  the 


CILIATA.  71 

outlying  country ;  or  perhaps  a  bodyguard, 
looking  before,  behind,  and  around  in  all  direc- 
tions for  any  foe  who  may  be  lurking  near. 
At  other  times  it  is  a  pilot  standing  at  his  post 
and  steering  true  to  the  line,  as  the  trachelo- 
cerca  steadily  follows  its  course  in  a  clear  sea. 

The  trachelocerca  is  colorless,  has  one  pul- 
sating vacuole,  and  its  nucleus  is  so  finely 
divided  as  to  look  like  powder  scattered 
through  the  body.  It  can  be  detected  only 
by  using  aniline ;  the  nucleus  always  remain- 
ing uncolored.  Previous  to  reproduction  this 
powder-like  nucleus  gathers  into  a  solid  one, 
but  after  fission  the  nuclei  of  both  individuals 
break  into  small  particles  and  disperse  as  be- 
fore. When  swimming,  it  usually  carries  the 
neck  foremost,  but  it  can  "  back  water "  like 
the  other  Ciliata.  The  body  can  be  contracted 
into  almost  spherical  shape,  or  it  can  be  greatly 
elongated  at  pleasure;  and  you  will  envy  it 
this  faculty,  for,  if  a  boy's  body  were  elastic 
he  could  stretch  it  up  to  reach  those  apples 
that  hang  too  high,  or  contract  it  so  that  his 
hands  and  feet  would  not  protrude  so  far 
beyond  his  last  year's  suit  of  clothes. 

A  gentleman,  who  watched  a  trachelocerca 
dividing,  says  that  it  withdrew  the  neck  and 
remained  quiet  for  some  time,  except  for  a 


72  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

ciliary  action  about  the  orifice  for  the  neck, 
and  an  occasional  brief  protrusion  of  the  pro- 
boscis. The  animal  appeared  irregular  and 
lumpy  in  outline.  Then  there  appeared  a  line 
of  constriction  around  the  middle  of  the  body, 
and  presently  the  two  halves  were  loosened  so 
as  to  slide  freely  on  each  other.  Once  the 
anterior  half  threw  out  its  neck  and  bobbed 
it  about  for  a  moment;  then  the  head  of  the 
animal  seemed  to  shift  around  to  the  side,  at 
right  angles  to  its  former  position,  while  a 
ciliary  wreath  appeared  in  corresponding  posi- 
tion on  the  posterior  half  or  new  animal.  This 
gave  the  two  the  appearance  of  having  divided 
by  longitudinal  fission,  whereas  it  was  by  true 
transverse  fission.  About  an  hour  and  a  half 
after  the  first  appearance  of  the  constriction, 
the  new  animal  threw  out  its  neck  to  a  great 
length  and  writhed  it  about  with  the  utmost 
agility,  sometimes  completely  encircling  the 
body.  The  young  one  remained  in  contact  with 
its  parent,  which  again  protruded  its  neck  in 
the  same  manner.  Then  both  were  quiet. 
Again  both  threw  out  their  necks  and  again 
dozed  off  to  sleep. 


CILIATA.  73 

VI. 

(Amphileptus.) 

There  is  another  creature  which  closely  re- 
sembles  the  swan's  neck  except  that  it  is  quite 
sharply  pointed  at  both  extremities  and  has 
several  pulsating  vacuoles  arranged  in  a  row 
along  the  side  of  its  body.  It  is  covered  with 
fine  cilia  like  the  paramoecium,  but  is  larger, 
measuring  about  one  sixteenth  of  an  inch.  It 
is  not  so  lively  as  the  trachelocerca,  being  quiet 
and  dignified  in  its  movements.  It  can  travel 
backward  or  forward  with  equal  facility,  as 
most  of  the  ciliata  can,  since,  using  cilia  for 
oars,  all  it  has  to  do  is  to  work  the  cilia  in 
the  opposite  direction,  or  reverse  the  engine. 
The  animal  being  covered  with  longitudinal 
rows  of  cilia  has  a  slightly  grooved  appear- 
ance when  it  raises  its  neck  so  as  to  give  an 
oblique  view. 

In  most  animals  we  find  the  head  sur- 
mounting the  neck ;  but  if  you  look  for  that 
in  the  Amphileptus,  you  will  be  disappointed, 
for  the  proboscis  terminates  in  a  flat  disk,  and 
the  mouth  or  swallowing  tube  is  located  at 
one  side,  below  the  neck, — that  is,  the  mouth 
is  in  its  shoulder,  and  the  neck  is  used  as  the 


74  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

elephant  uses  his  proboscis,  to  convey  food  to 
the  mouth. 

The  amphileptus  is  supposed  to  be  one  of 
the  transverse  fission  class,  but  No.  3,  Fig.  23, 
seems  to  be  contrary-minded.  These  two  were 
so  closely  attached  along  the  entire  length  of 


FIG.  23. — Amphileptus. 

their  bodies  that  when  the  large  one  raised  its 
proboscis  the  little  one's  neck  moved  with 
it.  It  seems  hardly  probable  that  two  ani- 
mals which  had  once  been  separated  could 


CHART  III. 


M«M«Mt     *|         »  V       »««K*<|    ' 

IINL 

BY  THE  MERRY 


CILIATA.  75 

ever  unite  so  completely  as  to  act  with  one 
mind. 

If  they  do  divide  transversely  the  two  parts 
must  slide  upon  each  other,  or  the  neck  and 
mouth  of  the  old  one  must  have  the  same  mi- 
gratory habit  as  the  trachelocerca's. 

There  is  a  species  of  amphileptus  in  which 
the  vacuoles  are  arranged  in  two  series,  one  on 
either  side  of  the  body. 

You  remember  that  in  the  aurelia  the  two 
vacuoles  contracted  alternately?  In  this  am- 
phileptus the  contraction  runs  from  the  ante- 
rior to  the  posterior  part  first  on  one  side  and 
then  on  the  other.  This  alternation  of  motion 
along  the  two  sides  is  interesting  because  it  is 
the  beginning  of  just  such  motion  as  we  see  in 
man  when  he  walks.  So  here,  again,  we  have 
surprised  another  of  Nature's  schemes  long  be- 
fore she  made  it  public. 


VII. 

THE  JOLLY  NAIL  KEG. 
(Coleps.) 

Sometimes  you  will  see  little  green-black  or 
brown-black  kegs  with  narrow  staves  and  sunk- 
en hoops,  rolling  about  in  the  water  or  careen- 


76  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

ing  over  and  over  without  changing  place,  with 
such  velocity  that  it  is  impossible  to  tell  what 
shape  or  manner  of  being  you  are  looking  upon. 
When  you  twirl  a  spool  on  a  string  or  spin  a 
top,  you  can  distinguish  nothing  except  the  cir- 
cular movement.  So,  when  the  little  keg  twirls 
rapidly  you  can  distinguish  nothing  but  revo- 
lution on  an  axis,  and  you  feel  sure  it  must 
have  a  string  on  one  end  and  be  anchored  to 
the  stick  or  moss  near  by.  It  seems  to  be  tug- 
ging hard  at  its  anchor. 

This  is  the  little  Coleps.  And  he  is  a  merry 
little  fellow,  eternally  rolling  and  rolling.  That 
is  the  business  of  life,  he  thinks ;  and  almost 
the  only  time  he  pauses  in  his  mad  career  is 
when  he  divides,  as  in  3,  Chart  III,  or  when 
he  eats ;  and  then  he  seems  in  haste  to  get 
through  and  go  to  twirling  again. 

Once  a  rotifer  was  crushed  by  the  cover 
glass,  and  presently  coleps  began  to  assemble 
from  all  directions,  as  if  scenting  the  prey 
from  afar.  They  gathered  around  the  rotifer, 
sucking  the  juice  and  distending  their  sides 
with  feasting  on  so  much  richness,  "swelling 
wisibly  before  my  wery  eyes,"  as  old  Well- 
er  said.  While  the  little  keg-shaped  things 
were  thus  engaged,  one  could  distinguish  their 
toothed  extremities,  their  sunken  hoops,  their 


CILIATA.  T7 

longitudinal  lines  or  staves,  their  general  color, 
and  their  red  eye-spot. 

As  soon  as  their  appetites  were  satisfied, 
away  they  went,  careening  about  as  though 
that  was  the  one  thing  the  doing  of  which 
could  not  be  postponed. 

Apparently  the  coleps's  sole  idea  of  hap- 
piness is  to  roll  over  in  the  water.  Or  per- 
haps that  is  its  idea  of  usefulness.  We  all 
have  such  different  ideas  as  to  what  is  the  really 
necessary  thing  to  be  done  in  life  !  And  some- 
times it  seems  as  though  the  little  coleps  had 
figured  it  down  as  fine  as  the  rest  of  us,  who 
work  with  all  our  might  and  exert  all  our 
strength  in  turning  around  in  one  spot  and 
accomplishing  nothing  of  consequence.  Per- 
haps to  the  eye  of  Omniscience  we  men  and 
women,  boys  and  girls,  are  only  dusky  little 
barrels,  forever  rolling,  rolling — doing  nothing. 
Possibly  the  busy  coleps  thinks  its  work  of 
immense  importance,  and  expects  after  a  life 
well  spent  to  receive  the  reward :  "  Well  done, 
thou  good  and  faithful  servant ;  thou  hast  been 
faithful  in  rolling,  I  will  make  thee  Master  of 
High  and  Lofty  Tumbling." 


78 


IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 


VIII. 

(Euplotes.) 

We  have  seen  some  little  busybodies  run- 
ning along  the  stems  of  spirogyra,  or  the  roots 
of  duckweed  on  the  slide,  smelling  along  like 
mice,  and,  like  mice,  halting  suddenly,  taking  a 
step  backward,  as  though  in  search  of  some- 


FIG.  24. — 1,  Euplotes  harpa  ;  2,  Euplotes  charon. 

thing  of  delicious  odor  over  which  they  had 
passed  in  their  haste ;  for  they  seem  to  have  a 
well-developed  sense  of  smell,  and  to  be  the 
first  animal  with  true  olfactory  organs.  When 
you  get  a  side  view  of  them  you  can  see  their 
humped-up  backs  and  the  swift  movements  of 
their  legs. 


CILIATA.  79 

In  this  position  they  somewhat  resemble 
the  wood  armadillo — that  gray,  many-legged 
isopod  which  you  find  under  boards  on  the 
ground. 

The  family  name  of  these  creatures  is  Eu- 
plotes  charon,  and  you  will  be  glad  to  make 
their  acquaintance,  I  am  sure ;  for  this  is  the 
first  of  these  microscopic  animals  which  you 
know  to  have  anterior  and  posterior  ciliate 
processes  or  legs — to  set  one  foot  ahead  of  an- 
other, and  to  actually  walk. 

It  is  a  comical  little  body,  as  it  scampers 
out  of  sight  under  the  decaying  vegetation,  or 
runs  nibbling  along  it. 

The  legs  are  large,  stiff,  ciliate  spines,  and 
are  attached  to  the  body  by  true  joints  or 
articulations,  for  the  animal  can  walk  or  run 
either  backward  or  forward.  The  Euplotes 
did  a  good  thing  when  it  got  a  leg  which 
need  not  be  made  every  time  it  was  wanted. 
A  permanent  leg  was  a  great  labor-saving 
device. 

The  Euplotes  striatus  resembles  minute, 
transparent  lilies  of  the  valley  gathered  into 
a  ball,  rolling  through  the  water  as  an  ani- 
mated crystal  sphere. 

The  E.  Jiarpa  is  a  much  larger  and  more 
imposing  animal,  with  an  important  and  mas- 


80 


IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 


terful  air  as  it  journeys  onward.  When  it 
swims  on  its  back,  as  it  usually  does,  you  can 
plainly  see  the  band  of  large  cilia  extending  to 
the  middle  of  the  body,  and  the  coarse  spines 
or  leglike  cilia,  part  of  which  turn  backward, 
part  forward. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

PKOTOZOAN   PHILOSOPHY. 

ONE  day  a  little  bell  animalcule  was  float- 
ing listlessly  in  the  water,  its  ciliated  disk 
withdrawn,  its  head  drooping  on  its  stem, 
looking  very  hopeless  and  disconsolate.  It 
did  not  care  for  food;  it  did  not  seem  to  be 
glad  that  the  day  was  bright  and  beautiful, 
and  that  the  water  glistened  with  the  sun- 
beams that  shone  upon  it ;  it  did  not  even  re- 
coil as  usual,  in  modest  fear  when  a  big  Para- 
moecium  came  along ;  it  did  not  seem  to  care 
whether  he  ate  it  or  not. 

"Why,  what's  the  matter,  little  Belle?" 
asked  the  Paramoecium.  "You  look  so  for- 
lorn, and  don't  seem  to  care  to  live  any 
longer." 

"  I  don't  know  as  I  do,"  said  the  Vorticella 
sadly.  "  Indeed,  I  don't  know  that  I  am  alive. 
I  don't  think  I  ever  have  been.  And  it  just 
makes  me  feel  like  crying  to  think  of  it." 

81 


82  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

"  Why,  here  you  are,  a  whole  pretty  little 
sweetheart ;  so  what  is  there  for  you  to  grieve 
about  ? "  asked  the  Paramcecium  cheerfully. 

"  Why,  you  see  it  is  this  way,"  said  Belle. 
"  My  mother  divided  into  two  to  make  me,  and 
so  I'm  my  own  mother,  and  there  isn't  any  me. 
And  my  mother  was  half  of  my  grandmother, 
and  so  I'm  my  own  grandmother.  I  don't  see 
where  there  is  room  for  any  <  me '  about  me." 

The  Paramcecium  drew  nearer  and  said  in 
a  confidential  whisper :  "  I  don't  mind  telling 
you,  Belle,  that  I've  always  been  puzzled  by 
that  same  question,  for  the  same  thing  is  true 
of  me.  But  I  always  thought  it  best  to  keep 
a  stiff  upper  lip,  and  to  act  bold  and  confident, 
so  people  wouldn't  suspect  that  I  wasn't  any- 
body." 

"  Yes,  I  knew  it  was  true  of  you,  too,  or  I'd 
never  have  had  the  courage  to  speak  to  you 
about  it.  Only  yesterday  I  saw  one  of  your 
family  break  in  two  crosswise.  Our  family 
divide  from  the  top  down  lengthwise.  But  I 
knew  that,  lengthwise  or  crosswise,  it  must 
amount  to  the  same  thing.  And  to  see  it  done 
right  here  before  my  very  eyes,  and  those  two 
ends  of  a  Parana oecium  start  off  as  though 
they  really  thought  they  were  somebody,  when 
neither  one  was  anvthing  in  this  weary  world 


PROTOZOAN  PHILOSOPHY.  83 

but  the  half  of  its  own  mother — to  see  all  this 
brought  my  own  trouble  home  to  me  so  forci- 
bly that  I  couldn't  sleep  all  night  for  think- 
ing of  it.  It  breaks  my  heart  to  think  of 
us  all  being  just  ^  mother,  -J-  grandmother,  %• 
great-grandmother,  and  probably  not  ourselves 
at  all." 

At  this  point  a  Swan's  Neck,  who  had  been 
watching  them  from  an  island  across  the  chan- 
nel, came  gliding  up  in  her  soft,  insinuating 
manner  and  said : 

"  Dear  friends,  I  hope  I  am  not  intruding, 
but  I  think  I  can  guess  the  subject  of  your 
conversation." 

"  Oh,  you're  quite  welcome,  Trache  ;  and  if 
you  guess  right,  we'll  tell  you,"  said  the  Para- 
moecium. 

"  You  know  I  go  about  the  world  a  great 
deal  more  than  you  do,  Belle,"  said  the  Swan's 
Neck,  "  and,  walking  so  noiselessly,  I  often  come 
upon  people  with  their  heads  together,  and 
they  are  always  talking  of  one  thing.  The  one 
great  question  which  occupies  the  minds  of  all 
thoughtful  Vorticellae,  Paramoecii,  Amoebae — of 
all  people  of  whatever  color,  green  or  red  or 
yellow  or  white,  of  every  nationality — is  this 
same  one  which  you  are  discussing,  viz.,  l  Have 
we  any  individual  existence,  or  are  we  merely 


84  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

the  sum  of  our  ancestors,  the  product  of  he- 
redity ? ' " 

"  Now,  if  they  are  all  puzzling  about  it, 
why  not  call  a  meeting  and  see  if,  by  putting 
all  our  heads  together  at  once,  we  can  not 
come  at  the  truth  of  the  matter  ? "  said  the 
Paramcecium. 

"  Well,  suppose  we  go  and  invite  each  tribe 
to  send  its  best  philosophers  to  discuss  the 
question  ? "  said  the  Swan's  Neck. 

"Yes,  and  let's  invite  the  mathematicians 
too,  for  it  is  really  a  question  of  division  and 
multiplication,"  said  the  Paramcecium,  who 
prided  himself  on  belonging  to  a  family  which 
could  perform  1,364,000  divisions  in  forty-two 
days. 

But  the  Vorticella  said:  "I  think  111  not 
go  with  you  to  issue  the  invitations.  I've 
sometimes  broken  loose,  taking  my  stem  with 
me,  and  sometimes  have  left  it  and  have  gone 
alone  when  I  wished  to  cross  the  water  to 
reside.  But  I  feel  so  discouraged  now  that  I 
don't  believe  I'd  ever  be  able  to  take  root  again 
if  I  should  break  from  my  moorings." 

So  the  other  two  went  off  to  summon  the 
Stentor  and  the  Sun  Animalcule,  the  Chilodon 
and  the  Coleps,  the  Amoeba  and  the  Arcella,  to 
meet  with  them  at  the  home  of  Bell  Animal- 


PROTOZOAN  PHILOSOPHY.  85 

cule,  to  see  what  solution  of  the  vexed  question 
they  could  find. 

When  they  met  in  council  the  philosophers 
did  all  the  talking,  as  usual.  It  is  impossible 
to  reproduce  here  all  their  learned  discourses, 
but  the  pith  of  their  argument  was  this  : 

"  No  one  of  us  is  the  whole  of  his  father, 
grandfather,  etc. ;  so  we  can  not  be  any  one  of 
these  individuals,  but  must  be  some  other  indi- 
vidual. We  eat  and  assimilate  food,  and  make 
new  matter  which  is  not  and  never  has  been  a 
part  of  our  ancestors.  So  the  greater  part  of  us 
must  be  ourselves.  Consequently,  we  are  jus- 
tified in  thinking  of  ourselves  as  'me,'  and  not 
as  '  my  forebears.' ' 

"  Oh,  but  you  are  not  treating  the  question 
fairly,"  said  the  mathematicians.  "  What  is 
there  of  us  but  ancestor  when  we  are  first 
made  ?  And  if  we  are  all  ancestor  then,  what 
can  we  ever  be  but  ancestor  with  a  full  stomach, 
or  ancestor  with  an  empty  stomach  ?  There  is 
no  telling  into  what  morasses  speculation  may 
not  lead  us.  But  figures  can  lie. .  If  we  take 
figures  we  shall  arrive  at  the  truth.  Now  left  us 
try  this.  I  have  in  me  %  my  father,  ^  my  grand- 
father, -J-  great-grandfather,  -fa  great-great-grand- 
father, -^  great-great-great-grandfather. 


86  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

Hence  we  have  -^  to  represent  either  victuals 
or  the  '  me.'  " 

"No,  that  proves  nothing,"  said  the  phi- 
losophers.  "  You  have  gone  back  only  five 
generations  —  not  even  to  the  dawn  of  history. 
There  have  been  many  prehistoric  generations. 
And  since  the  fractions  representing  the  quan- 
tities of  the  ancestors  decrease  as  you  go  back- 
ward, you'll  probably  get  a  larger  fraction  as 
the  exponent  of  the  '  me.'  Try  it  for  ten  gen- 
erations." 

So  the  mathematicians  set  to  work  again. 


1        — 
1024  -" 

The  chief  calculator,  a  Paramoecium  Cau- 
datum,  added  the  column,  and  found  that  when 
ten  generations  were  taken  into  the  count,  there 
was  but  10124  of  the  self  or  of  food  in  each  in- 
dividual. They  tried  again  with  fifteen  —  with 
twenty  generations,  and  obtained  as  the  result 
I64|g7  6  for  the  equivalent  of  the  li  me." 

Smaller  and  smaller  it  became,  dwindling 
into  the  infinitesimal.  If  they  could  go  back 
to  the  Infinite,  they  might  find  the  self  they 
sought  —  not  otherwise.  But  it  was  not  a 
SELF  as  they  had  loved  to  think  it,  but  a 
wee  little,  invisible  self. 


PROTOZOAN  PHILOSOPHY.  87 

The  pretty  Vorticella,  always  so  modest 
and  self-deprecating,  glanced  timidly  at  the  re- 
sult, then  silently  coiled  her  stem,  hid  among 
the  mosses,  and  was  seen  no  more.  The 
haughty  Stentors  trembled  in  every  limb.  The 
philosophers  and  wiseacres  were  astounded 
and,  for  once  in  their  lives,  speechless.  To 
think  of  being  less  than  the  smallest  atom ! 
Nothing — absolutely  nothing  but  the  sum  of 
one's  ancestors  !  One  and  all  slunk  away  in 
consternation  and  chagrin,  to  ruminate  upon 
the  matter  in  private. 

Only  the  merry  little  Coleps  said : 
"  I  can't  see  what  difference  it  makes  who 
we  are  so  we're  here  and  have  a  good  time.  I 
would  as  lief  be  one  of  my  ancestors  as  one 
of  my  descendants.  What's  the  advantage  of 
being  posterity  ?  If  I'm  my  grandfather,  all  I 
have  to  say  is  that  I'm  rather  fond  of  the  old 
gentleman.  So  here  goes,  old  boy,  for  a  jolly 
roll."  And  off  he  went,  twirling  like  a  top 
gone  crazy. 


But  there  is  nothing  in  this  world  quite  so 
delightful  as  the  way  in  which  philosophy  can 
change  its  base  when  vanquished  and  driven 
from  an  untenable  position. 


88  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

Hence  it  was  not  long  before  one  after  an- 
other of  the  wiseacres  began  to  emerge  from 
his  seclusion  in  the  mosses  and  to  say : 

"  Why,  to  be  sure  !  That  is  all  right. 
Your  figures  deal  with  our  material  bodies 
alone.  And  we  have  always  said — at  least  we 
have  always  meant — that  the  self  was  some- 
thing other  than  the  body  ;  something  higher 
and  more  potent ;  something  which  gathers 
matter  about  it  to  make  a  body  for  its  use." 

Gaining  confidence  from  the  sound  of  their 
own  voices,  they  began  to  spell  with  larger  let- 
ters and  to  declare  : 

"  The  SELF  is  all.  The  body  is  nothing. 
What  matter  if  our  bodies  cvre  derived  from 
our  ancestors  ?  The  ME  is  the  important  part." 

And  finally  they  said  :  "  We  have  no  bodies. 
The  ME,  the  SELF,  only  extemporizes  a  body 
as  it  does  pseudopodia.  'We  are  only  Self, 
and  have  no  manner  of  being,  save  in  the 
sense  of  SELF.'  "  * 

At  this  juncture  an  insignificant  little  Chi- 
lodon  ventured  to  ask  : 

"  But  what  if  the  SELF  is  only  the  sum  of 
our  fathers'  and  grandfathers'  SELVES  ?  What 
if  the  sense  of  self  is  inherent  in  matter  ? " 

*  Thanks,  Mr.  Howells. 


PBOTOZOAN  PHILOSOPHY. 


89 


FIG.  25. — Floscularia  cornuta  (magnified). 


90  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

At  which  the  philosophers  turned  upon  it 
such  looks  of  contempt,  and  hurled  at  it  such  a 
shower  of  scornful  missiles,  that  it  was  glad  to 
scurry  away  beyond  their  reach,  remarking  to 
itself  as  it  went : 

"  Well,  anyhow,  I  have  a  sense  of  something 
or  other  which  tells  me  that  I'd  better  hustle 
my  father  and  grandfather  around  to  the  other 
side  of  this  island  before  the  philosophers  crack 
my  skull." 


CHAPTER  V. 

WHEEL    BEAKEES. 
I. 

(Rotifer  a.) 

DOWN  where  the  willows  wave,  and  where 
they  bend  over  and  dip  their  branches  into  the 
pond,  you  will  find  the  most  beautiful  species 
of  the  wheel  animalcules.  It  will  puzzle  you, 
as  it  has  the  naturalists,  whether  to  call  them 
worms  or  crustaceans,  for  they  have  something 
resembling  a  crust  or  shell,  yet  you  are  sure  to 
say,  "  This  is  a  worm,"  when  you  see  a  Hotifer 
vulgaris  walking  by,  making  loops  of  his  body 
as  the  "measure  worm"  does.  (See  Fig.  33.) 

But  when  you  see  a  Brachionus  or  a  Ptero- 
dina  drawing  his  head  and  feet  inside  his  shell, 
you  will  say,  "This  is  some  sort  of  a  mud  tur- 
tle." (See  Figs.  26  and  34.) 

And  when  you  see  a  Stephanosceros  you  will 
say :  "  Surely  this  is  a  stentor  or  a  vaginicola, 

8  91 


92  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

for  lie  has  a  lorica.     But  how  does  he  happen 
to  wear  plumes  ?  " 

You  can  find  the  common  rotifers  in  your 
jardiniere,  or  almost  anywhere ;  for  the  rotifer 


i 

FIG.  26. — 1,  Pterodina;  2,  a  one-legged  pedestrian. 

may  be  dried  till  he  falls  to  pieces  at  a  touch, 
and  still  retain  vitality  in  the  dry  powder. 
And  this  rotifer  powder  may  be  carried  in  the 
air  by  the  winds,  and  may  come  to  life  in  any 
vessel  of  standing  water  which  contains  enough 
putrefying  vegetable  matter  to  nourish  the 
young  animals.  You  can  keep  the  powder  on 
hand  and  produce  a  crop  of  rotifers  at  pleasure. 
In  this  way  you  may  play  at  being  Gabriel  and 
awakening  the  dead.  So,  too,  by  gathering 
earth  from  the  bed  of  a  pond  and  moistening 
it  you  may  resurrect  many  kinds  of  beings. 


WHEEL   BEARERS. 


93 


Or  you  can  pour  water  containing  microscopic 
animals  through  sand,  and,  after  drying  the 
sand,  put  it  away  in  a  warm  place,  such  as  a 
covered  urn  on  top  of  the  bookcase,  and  when- 
ever you  feel  like  having  a  resurrection  morn 
you  can  pour  water  on  the 
sand,  and  out  of  their  graves 
will  come  trooping  amoabae,  bell 
animalculae,  paramcecii,  rotifers, 
and  other  sleepers. 

(But  this  is  another  thing 
which  you  must  not  tell  to  your 
lady  callers ;  for,  if  they  would 
be  shocked  at  the  menagerie 


FIG.  27.— Wheel  of  tube  wheel. 


FIG.  28.— Two-lipped 
tube  wheel. 


in  the  drawing-room,  they  would  be  even  more 
horrified  at  a  graveyard  in  the  library.) 

Dr.  Mantell  says  a  rotifer  can  be  dried  and 
revived  twelve  times,  and  Professor  Owen  re- 


94  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

lates  that  lie  saw  one  revive  which  had  been 
kept  in  dust  for  four  years.  Fontana  says  in 
two  hours  he  revived  one  which  had  lain  dried 
and  motionless  two  and  a  half  years.  Doyer 
says  they  endure  exposure  to  a  temperature 
ranging  from  11°  to  113°  F.  In  dry  sand  they 
withstand  a  temperature  of  150° ;  in  moist, 
can  not  revive  if  heated  to  131°. 

Perhaps  if  rotifer  seeds  had  been  buried 
with  Egyptian  mummies,  they  would  grow 
now,  after  three  thousand  years  of  entombment, 
like  other  seeds  found  with  these  rather  over- 
ripe specimens  of  humanity. 

The  rotifer  will  endure  cold  as  well  as  des- 
iccation. A  microscopist  had  a  vase  of  water 
containing  rotifers  suspended  from  the  bird- 
cage hook  on  his  porch.  One  cold  night  the 
water  froze,  and  the  wind  whipped  the  vase 
about  until  it  broke  loose  and  fell  shattered  to 
the  ground.  The  next  morning  he  found  the 
ball  of  ice  rolling  around  and  put  it  in  an 
empty  fish  tank,  where  it  thawed.  Putting 
a  drop  of  this  water  under  the  microscope  he 
observed  twelve  rotifers ;  which  number  had 
increased  to  forty  twenty-four  hours  later. 

Of  one  species  they  tell  the  amazing  story 
that  it  can  multiply  to  sixteen  million  in 
twelve  days. 


WHEEL  BEARERS.  95 

After  that  statement  it  is  hardly  necessary 
to  say  that  young  rotifers  develop  rapidly.  In 
some  species  the  egg  grows,  hatches,  and  be- 
comes a  full-grown  animal  in  less  than  one  day. 
The  ambitious  young  animal  is  so  eager  to  get 
started  in  life  that  his  cilia  and  jaws  may  be 
seen  to  work  before  he  leaves  the  shell,  or  be- 
fore he  leaves  the  parent  in  those  that  hatch 
before  birth. 

This  is  a  new  process  of  reproduction  ;  for 
these  animals  do  not  multiply  by  dividing,  but 
produce  their  young  from  eggs.  This  is  also 
the  first  time  we  have  noticed  animals  in  which 
there  is  a  distinction  of  sex. 

Ehrenberg  asserts  that  the  Philodina  rose- 
ola deposits  eggs  in  a  group  and  remains  a  long 
time  with  the  young  ones.  If  so,  family  life 
and  parental  affection  begin  among  these  lowly 
denizens  of  the  ponds. 

Komanes  relates  that  he  has  seen  a  rotifer 
attach  itself  by  its  forceps  to  the  side  of  a 
larger  one,  whereupon  the  larger  one  became 
very  active,  swinging  about  as  if  trying  to 
dislodge  its  burden.  Not  succeeding,  it  laid 
hold  of  a  weed  with  its  own  forceps  and 
began  a  series  of  most  extraordinary  move- 
ments, throwing  itself  violently  from  side  to 
side  with  such  astonishing  vigor  and  sudden- 


96  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

ness  as  threatened  to  break  its  own  toes  or 
wrench  off  its  foot.  After  a  trial  of  strength 
which  was  prodigious  in  proportion  to  the  size 
of  the  animals,  and  which  lasted  for  several 
minutes,  the  smaller  one  was  jerked  loose.  It 
returned  to  the  conflict,  but  did  not  succeed  in 
again  establishing  its  hold.  The  entire  scene, 
he  says,  was  as  like  intelligent  action  as  could 
well  be  imagined. 

But  although  they  are  so  much  more  highly 
organized  than  any  of  the  preceding  animals, 
they  are  only  one  fortieth  of  an  inch  in  length, 
and  are  entirely  invisible  to  the  naked  eye. 
Yet,  when  seen  through  a  microscope,  they 
look  so  large  and  rush  about  so  rapaciously 
that  you  find  yourself  thinking  of  them  as 
ferocious  beasts. 

Most  of  them  are  free  swimming  and  very 
active.  Some,  as  the  tripod  wheel  bearer,  are 
long  and  slender,  like  jointed  grasses. 

Some,  as  the  pterodina  and  brachionus,  are 
rounded  and  vase-shaped. 

Some  have  two  wheels,  like  the  H.  wdg&ris 
and  the  brachionus ;  some  have  but  one. 

Some  have  a  leg  or  foot  made  of  tubes 
that  slide  into  each  other  like  the  sections 
of  a  telescope.  (See  brachionus  and  H.  vul- 
garis.) 


WHEEL  BEAREES. 


97 


Others,  like  the  skeleton  wheel  bearer,  have 
genuine  articulated  joints  to  this  leg,  which 
bend  like  the  joints  of  your  arm. 

There  are  so  many  varieties  that  it  is  im- 
possible to  describe  the  half  of  them  here. 

The  Tripod  wheel  bearer  has  a  central  tube 
into  which  slide  anterior  as  well  as  posterior 
segments,  so  that  the  whole 
animal  seems  to  be  a  series 
of  telescopic  tubes.  It  re- 
sembles some  of  the  aquatic 
larvae,  having  a  small  head- 
like  segment,  two  black  or 
very  dark-red  eyes,  and  one 
antenna.  The  mastax  or 
mouth  is  situated  in  the 
main  or  central  tube.  The 
posterior  segments  can  be 
elongated  until  the  animal 
bears  little  resemblance  to 
the  other  families  of  Ho- 
tifera,  and  is  so  attenuated  as  to  look  like  a  fine 
thread.  The  last  segment  terminates  in  three 
slender,  divergent  toes  from  which  it  derives 
its  name  of  tripod.  The  wheels  are  small  and 
seldom  in  action,  and  it  is  perhaps  the  only 
rotifer  to  which  the  term  "  indolent "  can  be 
applied. 


FIG.  29.— Tripod  wheel 
bearer. 


98  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

In  the  Tube  wheel  (Fig.  30)  e  is  a  nearly  ma- 
tured  egg,  which  has  a  motion  independent  of 


PIG.  30.— Tube  wheels :  1,  retracted ;  e,  egg. 

the  parent's,  and  is  about  ready  to  begin  a  sepa- 
rate existence ;  doing  this  in  a  form  resem- 
bling a  stentor,  having  no  wheel  until  it  ceases 
roving  and  becomes  sedentary.  This  rotifer  has 
a  single  wheel,  situated  at  the  end  of  a  bent 
tube,  at  the  curve  of  which  is  a  prong  that  is 


WHEEL  BEARERS. 


99 


probably  an  antenna.  At  the  posterior  ex- 
tremity is  a  segmented  foot  terminated  by  two 
toes  and  a  suction  disk.  The  animal  can  bend 
freely. 

The  Skeleton  wheel  becvrer  has  a  three-sided 
carapace,  the  angles  of  which,  in  some  species, 
terminate  in  single  spines.  At  the  last  joint  of 


FIG.  31. — Skeleton  wheel  bearer. 

the  articulated  foot  are  two  toes  which  open 
and  shut  like  the  blades  of  a  pair  of  scissors. 


100  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

When  anchored  by  these  toes,  it  can  bend  back- 
ward like  a  lady  making  an  old-time  courtesy. 
It  swims  with  the  toes  closed  and  held  behind 
horizontally,  but  it  bends  them  down  at  a  sharp 
angle  when  it  desires  to  turn  about  or  alter  its 
course. 

The  Stephanoceros  is  the  beauty  among  roti- 
fers. In  place  of  the  wheels  it  has  five  plume- 
like  arms  which  are  held  open  to  catch  unwary 
creatures  wandering  that  way.  The  arms  close 
together,  forming  a  basket  with  a  hole  at  the 
bottom  leading  to  the  funnel  and  oesophagus. 
When  a  little  creature  is  entrapped  the  stepha- 
noceros  may  be  seen  to  swallow  it  with  a  gulp — 
that  is,  if  your  microscope  is  of  sufficient  power 
to  reveal  the  rotifer  himself ;  for  he  is  hard  to 
detect,  being  very  delicate  and  transparent  and 
living  in  a  frail,  colorless  sheath. 

We  have  mentioned  the  walk  of  the  Rotifer 
vulgaris.  It  also  swims  by  the  action  of  its 
cilia.  It  has  a  proboscis  which  can  be  extended 
beyond  the  wheels,  and  on  this  proboscis  are 
two  red  eyes.  When  it  swims  it  projects  a  long 
horn  or  antenna.  It  has  two  toes  and  a  suction 
disk  by  which  it  often  fastens  itself,  swinging 
around  in  a  circle,  as  the  pterodina,  the  skele- 
ton, and  many  of  the  rotifers  do.  In  fact,  so 
common  and  so  useless  is  this  performance 


WHEEL  BEARERS. 


101 


FIG.  32. — Stephanoceros  eichornii  (magnified). 


102 


IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 


among  the  rotifers,  that  it  can  only  be  re- 
garded as  a  sort  of  national  game  of  the  wheel 
bearers. 

The  vulgaris  is  one  of  the  viviparous  roti- 
fers, and  through  the  transparent,  moving  vis- 


FIG.  33.— 1,  Rotifer  vulgaris;  2,  same  walking;  3,  young  one. 

cera  of  the  body,  a  well-developed  young  ani- 
mal may  be  seen. 

Hotifer  vulgaris  is,  as  his  name  implies, 
the  commonest  of  the  wheel  animalcules.  You 
will  see  him  everywhere,  and  will  recognize  him 
by  his  measure- worm  pace,  and  by  his  habit  of 
bobbing  up  serenely  just  when  you  don't  want 
him,  with  an  air  of  assurance  which  seems  to 
say,  "  You  sent  for  me,  I  believe." 


WHEEL  BEARERS.  103 

So  you  and  he  will  become  thoroughly  ac- 
quainted without  further  introduction,  and  we 
will  spend  our  time  with  a  rarer  and  more  beau- 
tiful wheel  bearer. 


II. 

(Brachionus.) 

jBrachionus  pala,  when  viewed  from  the 
front,  looks  like  an  elegant  fragile  cup  with 
bulging  sides.  From  one  side  of  the  rim  pro- 
ject four  points,  the  middle  two  of  which  are 
slender  and  sharp  as  needles.  The  under  side 
of  the  cup  is  flattened  and  ends  at  the  rear  in 
two  blunt  points,  between  which  the  grooved, 
proboscislike  foot  is  protruded. 

This  rotifer  has  two  large  wheels,  which 
seem  to  revolve  rapidly,  giving  it  the  appear- 
ance of  possessing  great  power.  Between  the 
wheels  is  a  ciliated  throat  or  funnel  leading  to 
the  mouth,  which,  as  in  all  rotifers,  is  situated 
inside  the  body  back  of  the  funnel. 

This  isn't  the  usual  place  for  a  mouth,  but 
you  see  this  is  Nature's  first  experiment  at 
mouth-making,  and  she  hasn't  yet  learned  the 
best  location  for  one. 


104: 


IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 


This  is  a  genuine  mouth,  or  masticating 
room,  although  so  oddly  placed.  It  consists  of 
a  pair  of  reddish-brown,  club-shaped  teeth  and 

a  flat  plate  or  anvil. 
The  food  rests  upon 
the  anvil,  and  the 
teeth  act  as  ham- 
mers to  pound  it 
fine.  You  may  see 
the  way  in  which 
they  work  by  tak- 


FIG.  34. — Brachionua. 


FIG.  35.— Mouth  of 
Brachionus. 


ing  scissors  by  the  blades,  and  opening  and 
shutting  them  so  as  to  make  the  eyes  of  the 
scissors  come  together  with  the  regularity  of 
clockwork.  In  shape  the  eyes  of  the  scissors 
resemble  the  teeth.  You  must  not  laugh  at 


WHEEL  BEARERS.  105 

ture  because  her  first  teeth  were  hammers,  for 
they  were  a  great  invention  in  their  day. 

The  mouth  is  called  a  mastax.  Back  of  it 
is  a  gullet  leading  to  a  stomach  and  an  intes- 
tine which  ends  in  a  cloaca  or  canal  for  the 
expulsion  of  unassimilated  food.  Under  the 
posterior  portion  of  the  body  is  a  transversely 
grooved,  flexible  foot,  which  you  are  sure  to 
mistake  for  a  tail,  because  it  whips  about,  re- 
minding one  of  the  tiger  lashing  his  tail.  But 
this  appendage  is  a  true  foot,  because  it  grows 
out  from  the  ventral  surface,  while  a  tail  ter- 
minates the  dorsal  surface,  and  because  at  the 
end  of  this  foot  are  two  toes  which  are  used 
as  forceps  to  grasp  weeds  and  roots  so  as  to 
anchor  the  rotifer. 

The  brachionus's  use  of  this  foot  is  often 
very  comical.  It  will  bend  the  foot  forward, 
place  it,  push  the  body  forward,  lift  the  foot, 
and  again  set  it  forward,  propelling  the  body 
with  considerable  force,  and  giving  itself  the 
grotesque  appearance  of  a  creature  stalking 
about  on  one  leg. 

You  see,  Nature  wasn't  quite  satisfied  with 
the  bristlelike  legs  of  the  Euplotes,  and  was 
trying  to  make  legs  of  flesh.  But  she  made 
the  funny  mistake  of  thinking  one  leg  was 
enough,  if  it  had  two  toes  at  the  end  of  it. 


106  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

The  brachionus  wheels  up  to  an  object, 
swings  round,  catches  hold  with  its  forceps, 
pushes  itself  out  to  the  length  of  its  foot,  pro- 
trudes its  disks,  and  begins  to  rotate -its  wheels, 
—except  that  the  wheels  do  not  actually  re- 
volve. The  cilia  merely  fall  over  and  pick 
themselves  up  in  regular  order  so  rapidly  that 
all  you  see  is  a  dark  wave  traveling  around, 
which  makes  it  seem  that  the  disks  are  rotating. 

The  brachionus  is  the  most  ferocious  of  all 
the  animals  we  have  yet  met.  When  it  rushes 
forward,  tail-like  foot  lashing  its  sides  and  jaws 
extended  to  seize  its  prey,  it  presents  a  truly 
formidable  appearance,  not  to  be  expected  in 
a  creature  so  fragile  and  microscopic.  There 
is  a  suggestion  of  the  beasts  of  the  jungle  in 
the  satisfaction  with  which  it  pounces  upon  its 
victims. 

The  shell  or  carapace  is  of  palest  amber 
color  and  so  transparent  that  every  organ  of  the 
body  may  be  seen  through  it.  At  times  large 
oval  bodies  may  be  observed  inside  the  cara- 
pace or  attached  to  the  outside  near  the  top  of 
the  foot.  These  are  the  eggs.  They  are  soft 
when  exuded,  but  afterward  form  a  hard  shell 
which  is  so  thin  that  the  movement  of  the 
young  one  is  visible  through  it.  As  it  nears 
the  period  for  hatching,  the  red  eye  appears, 


WHEEL  BEARERS.  107 

the  ciliated  disks  begin  to  experiment  to  see  if 
they  are  in  good  working  order,  and  the  jaws 
go  through  the  motions  of  grinding  food.  The 
baby  rotifer  is  trying  its  teeth  before  it  has  any 
food  to  eat.  Finally,  he  becomes  impatient  of 
his  prison  walls,  and  writhes  about  till  the  shell 
cracks, — the  top  flying  back  as  though  on  a 
hinge.  Then  the  little  rotifer  glides  out,  selects 
a  good  site  for  a  home,  anchors,  and  begins  to  ply 
his  wheels  like  an  old  and  experienced  person. 

Young  animals  have  the  advantage  of  young 
human  beings  in  this  respect :  they  do  not  need 
to  learn  how  to  live.  A  rotifer  can  wheel,  a 
chick  can  pick  up  food,  a  young  robin  can 
build  its  nest  the  first  time  it  tries,  without 
having  to  go  through  a  tedious  apprenticeship 
as  a  child  does  before  it  can  even  stand  alone. 

A  Mistress  Rotifer  carries  handsome,  large 
eggs  when  she  means  to  hatch  girl  rotifers,  and 
small  ones  when  she  intends  to  hatch  boys. 
And  she  considers  girls  so  superior  that  she 
will  not  have  boy  eggs  in  the  same  filling  of 
the  incubator.  The  boy  rotifers  are  smaller, 
have  no  carapace,  no  mouth,  no  spines,  no  jaws, 
no  stomach,  no  wheels,  and  only  one  circle  of 
long,  strong  cilia  at  the  front.  They  move 
swiftly  and  have  but  a  brief  life. 


108  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 


III. 

Many  boys  kill  or  abuse  the  lower  animals 
because  they  do  not  appreciate  how  wonderful 
they  are,  and  never  think  that  birds  and  dogs 
and  cats  enjoy  and  suffer  almost  as  much  as 
people  do. 

A  boy  of  this  sort  was  one  day  raising  a 
stone  to  throw  at  a  frog  which  sat  croaking  on 
a  log  above  the  water. 

"  Don't  hit  him,"  said  a  bystander ;  "  he's  a 
relative  of  yours." 

"  He  ?  A  relative  of  mine  ? "  asked  the  boy 
in  amazement. 

"  Yes,  you  belong  to  the  same  great  family 
of  vocalists.  He  is  the  lowest  and  you  are  the 
highest  member.  Did  you  never  think  how 
silent  the  fish  and  clams  and  snails  and  all  these 
water  animals  below  the  frog  are  ?  He  is  the 
first  being  with  a  voice.  His  croak  is  the 
first  step  in  the  evolution  of  the  English  lan- 
guage. The  frog  is  the  first  thing  that  learned 
to  talk.  And  he  is  related  to  you  in  other 
ways :  All  these  animals  below  him  breathe 
water  and  live  in  water;  he  begins  life  as  a 
tadpole,  voiceless,  living  in  and  breathing 
water ;  but  by  and  by  he  climbs  up  out  of  it 


WHEEL  BEARERS. 


109 


and  breathes  air,  living  on  land  and  talking  in 
a  language  of  his  own  as  you  do." 

"  Well ! "  said  the  astonished  boy,  "  You're 
rather  a  toothless  old  chap,  Grandfather  Frog, 
and  your  voice  is  so  cracked  I  can't  understand 


FIG.  36.— Sword  bearer. 

what  you  say,  but  I  think,  instead  of  stoning 
you,  I'd  better  make  your  acquaintance."  And 
he  squatted  on  a  stone  with  his  chin  between 
his  knees  in  an  attitude  very  like  the  frog's,  and 
began  to  watch  the  croaker  intently. 

And,  like  the  boy,  you  will  feel  new  interest 
in  the  wheel  animalcule,  and  will  say,  "  I'm  glad 
to  make  your  acquaintance,  Uncle  Rotifer," 


110  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

when  you  learn  that,  way  down  in  the  scale  of 
life,  here  in  this  fragile  little  creature,  entirely 
invisible  without  a  microscope,  there  is  to  be 
found  a  genuine  brain  and  a  true  eye. 

(How  far  back  we  mortals  must  go  to  find 
the  beginnings  of  us  !) 

In  front  of  and  above  the  mastax  of  the 
brachionus  is  a  large  mass  of  diffuse  nervous 
matter,  a  brain  y  and  situated  like  a  wart  upon 
it  is  a  crystalline  lens,  a  square  eye  of  crimson 
color  and  of  high  refracting  power.  That  the 
rotifer  uses  this  eye  is  shown  by  his  bending 
his  body  in  the  direction  ,of  an  approaching 
morsel  of  food  and  plying  his  wheels  with  re- 
newed energy. 

This  also  proves  that  he  uses  his  brain; 
for  the  more  energetic  action  of  the  wheels  at 
prospect  of  reward  shows  intelligence.  So,  too, 
does  the  fact  that  he  will  depress  the  rim  of 
the  funnel  on  the  side  nearest  the  object  he  is 
trying  to  secure.  He  does  this  with  the  evi- 
dent purpose  of  making  it  easier  for  the  food 
to  slip  over  the  rim  into  the  funnel. 

But  if  we  find  such  pronounced  intelligence 
in  the  rotifer,  we  may  know  that  intelligence 
had  its  beginnings  far  fcelow  the  rotifer.  When 
you  come  to  study  mineralogy  and  see  with 
what  care  and  exactness  each  molecule  selects 


WHEEL  BEARERS.  HI 

just  the  niche  for  which  it  is  adapted,  or  when 
you  study  chemistry  and  see  with  what  in- 
telligent preference  the  atoms  of  oxygen  pass 
by  those  of  nitrogen  to  eagerly  unite  with 
those  of  iron,  you  will  say,  "  Father  Molecule 
and  Grandfather  Atom,  I  am  delighted  to  claim 
relationship  with  such  brainy  and  interesting 
people  as  you."  For  you  will  know  then  that 
the  roots  of  you  reach  down  through  frog  and 
rotifer  to  plant  and  mineral,  and  that  in  very 
truth  you  were  made,  or  begun,  ages  and  ages 
ago,  u  out  of  the  dust  of  the  earth." 


IV. 

The  waters  are  quiet,  the  sun  is  shining, 
and  everything  is  smiling  in  placid  beauty,  as 
though  there  were  neither  death  nor  misfortune 
in  this  watery  world. 

A  beautiful  green  creature,  knobbed  all 
over  and  shaped  like  a  mulberry,  comes 
through  the  water  smoothly  rolling  on  its  axis, 
dreaming  that  life  is  a  summer  sea. 

Its  real  name  is  Syncrypta  votoox,  but  we 
will  call  it  Jonah  Volvox.  It  seems  to  be  rev- 
eling in  the  exhilaration  of  motion,  to  be  full 
of  the  joie  de  vie,  which  is  what  the  French  say 


112  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

when  life  seems  so  exquisitely  delightful  that 
merely  to  be  alive  fills  their  cup  of  happiness 
to  overflowing.  It  swims  smoothly  along,  all 
unaware  that  in  the  little  bay  just  around  the 
point  of  the  cape  made  by  the  mosses  a  power- 
ful brachionus  is  plying  his  engines,  spreading 
his  ciliated  net,  and  saying,  like  the  spider  to 
the  fly : 

"  Will  you  walk  into  my  parlor  ?  Do  walk 
in!  You  are  my  especial  favorite  of  all  the 
delicacies  I  meet." 

Jonah  Volvox  sees  and  hears  nothing  of 
all  this.  All  unsuspecting,  he  rolls  along> 
rounds  the  point  of  the  cape,  and  is  caught  in 
the  whirlpool  made  by  the  rotating  wheels. 
Round  and  round  he  goes,  a  helpless  captive. 
No  cry  of  his  making,  poor  thing !  can  bring 
the  outside  world  to  his  rescue.  His  despair 
is  unheeded.  He  travels  in  narrower  and 
narrower  circles,  and  at  last  shoots  straight 
down  between  the  ciliated  wheels  into  the 
ciliated  gulf. 

Now  the  sides  of  this  tubular  gulf  contract 
to  prevent  his  escape  and  to  force  him  down 
upon  the  mastax.  The  jaws  of  the  mastax  gape 
wide  and  try  to  close  upon  him.  But  he  is  too 
large  and  too  round.  He  slips  away.  Again 
the  walls  contract  and  the  jaws  gape  wider, 


WHEEL  BEARERS.  113 

but  can  not  grasp  him.  Again  and  again,  with 
increasing  vigor,  the  jaws  try  to  seize  him,  but 
each  time  he  eludes  them. 

At  length  the  rotifer  in  disgust  spews  him 
out  of  his  mouth  and  casts  him  beyond  the 
outer  eddies  of  the  whirlpool. 

Now  you  wonder  how  it  was  with  Jonah 
Volvox?  and  whether  he  had  to  be  taken  to 
the  hospital,  the  morgue,  or  to  the  under- 
takers ? 

He  was  taken  to  none  of  these.  He  was 
not  even  hurt,  though  he  did  look  rather  dis- 
couraged as  he  rested  among  the  wreeds  at  a 
safe  distance,  pondering  on  the  ups  and  downs 
of  life. 

He  seemed  to  be  wondering  just  what  had 
happened  to  him,  and  how  it  all  came  about, 
and  what  could  be  the  meaning  of  it. 

After  a  time  he  took  courage  again  and 
said :  "  What's  the  difference  ?  We  must  take) 
things  as  they  come,  and  life  is  pretty  jolly, 
after  all.  So  here  we  go  again  ! "  And  away 
he  went,  smoothly  gliding  and  revolving,  as 
though  nothing  had  happened. 

But  now  it  chanced  that  Jonah's  little  son 
had  been  swimming  along  after  him,  trying,  as 
boys  will,  to  do  everything  their  elders,  do ; 
and  while  his  father  was  resting  among  the 


114  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

reeds  on  the  opposite  side,  meditating  on  the 
ways  of  life  and  forgetting  all  about  the  little 
fellow,  the  child  swam  round  the  point  of  the 
cape  where  he  had  last  caught  a  glimpse  of  his 
father,  and  he  too  disappeared  in  Charybdis 
and  was  never  heard  of  more.  No  ear  caught 
his  faint  shriek  of  terror  as  he  shot  down  the 
ciliated  funnel ;  and  as  it  contracted,  the  jaws 
opened,  and,  finding  him  small  enough,  took 
him  in,  closing  tight  behind  him. 

Then  he  was  laid  upon  the  anvil  and  the 
two  hammers  began  to  beat  upon  him,  pound- 
ing him  into  very  tender  beefsteak,  such  as 
tickles  the  palate  of  the  brachionus.  When  he 
was  sufficiently  pommeled,  he  was  forced  down 
the  gullet  into  the  stomach,  and,  when  the  rich 
juices  were  extracted  from  him,  all  that  was 
left  of  his  battered  form  was  expelled  from  the 
cloaca. 

But  even  his  parents  and  nearest  relatives 
would  never  have  recognized  those  dry  bones 
as  the  mangled  remains  of  poor  little  Jonah 
Volvox,  Jr. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

CEUSTACEANS. 

IT  may  be  that  Nature  herself  saw  the  gro- 
tesqueness  of  having  a  creature  stumping  about 
on  one  leg.  At  any  rate,  she  seems  to  have 
thought  best  to  try  making  animals  with  sev- 
eral legs.  She  also  wanted  to  invent  some  sort 
of  lungs.  So  she  did  one  of  the  funniest  things 
yet.  She  made  some  little  animals  called  Crus- 
taceans (because  they  have  a  crust  or  shell), 
and  gave  them  a  great  many  legs  which  they 
can  draw  up  inside  the  shell  when  it  is  bi- 
valve ;  and  she  put  the  lungs  into  the  front 
feet  of  some. 

This  is  why  they  are  called  "  Branchiopods," 
or  breath-footed. 

Some  of  the  crustaceans,  as  the  daphnia  and 
cypris,  have  a  thin  bivalve  shell — that  is,  a  shell 
of  two  parts  or  valves  which  open  as  though 
there  were  a  hinge  between  them ;  others,  as 
the  branchipus,  canthocamptus,  etc.,  have  a  shell 

115 


116  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

of  chitin  arranged  in  rings  or  somites  like  the 
abdominal  segments  of  the  lobster,  the  insect, 
and  the  spider.  These  bodies  of  chitin  are  usu- 
ally composed  of  twenty-one  somites,  and  would 
be  unwieldy  except  that  the  segments  can  slide 
into  each  other  as  telescopic  sections  do,  only 
these  overlap  more  readily  on  the  under  side  so 
that  the  animal  can  bend  downward  but  not 
upward.  Most  joints  have  a  habit  of  bending 
in  one  direction,  like  those  of  your  elbow  and 
knee.  It  is  only  now  and  then  that  some  "  lim- 
ber Jack  "  is  found  who  can  make  his  arm  curve 
forward  and  his  leg  curve  backward  ;  and  it  is 
only  occasionally  that  one  of  the  crustaceans,  as 
the  canthocamptus,  can  throw  his  heels  over 
his  back  and  hit  his  head. 

The  children  of  many  crustaceans  are  built 
on  an  entirely  different  pattern  from  the  par- 
ents, having  a  nauplius  form  (see  Cyclops,  Fig. 
39,  a)  with  a  body  less  elongated  and  lacking  in 
some  of  the  limbs  with  which  the  adult  is  pro- 
vided. In  some  cases,  however,  Nature  favored 
the  young  at  the  start  with  the  whole  twenty- 
one  somites,  afterward  causing  some  of  the 
segments  to  coalesce  so  as  to  form  one  out  of 
two.  Occasionally,  among  the  Phyllopoda  and 
Branchiopoda  one  finds  as  many  as  sixty  so- 
mites, and  each  somite  is  supposed  to  have 


CRUSTACEANS.  117 

a  pair  of  legs  or  other  appendages  belong- 
ing to  it. 

Now  it  would  seem — of  course  we  would  not 
think  of  criticising  Nature — but  it  would  seem 
that  to  jump  from  a  creature  with  but  one  leg, 
like  the  rotifer,  to  a  creature  with  one  hundred 
and  twenty  legs,  was  a  feat  to  be  expected 
from  a  professional  athlete  rather  than  from  a 
staid  old  dame,  like  Nature.  And  it  appears 
that  Nature  herself  thought  she  was  carrying 
matters  rather  too  far,  for  she  turned  some  of 
the  anterior  appendages  into  mouth  and  sense 
organs,  caused  the  posterior  appendages  to 
dwindle  in  size,  and  finally  she  eliminated 
some  of  them  entirely,  so  that  the  poor  animal 
would  not  have  to  spend  quite  all  its  time  in 
thinking  which  of  the  one  hundred  and  twenty 
legs  to  set  ahead  next. 

But  the  anterior  appendages  do  not  seem  to 
be  entirely  pleased  with  the  new  duties  to 
which  they  are  assigned.  They  change  about, 
acting  restless,  as  though  they  had  not  made 
up  their  minds  whether  to  settle  down  to  a 
permanent  occupation,  or,  indeed,  whether  to 
locate  at  all ;  for  the  legs  which  were  turned 
into  antennae  are,  in  some  species,  organs  of 
touch ;  in  others,  organs  of  locomotion ;  in 
others,  they  are  nurseries  for  the  young.  The 


118  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

eyes  of  some  species  are  sessile ;  those  of  others 
grow  on  stalks  as  though  they  were  still  deter- 
mined to  be  legs ;  and  those  of  others  refuse 
to  exist  at  all.  Some  of  the  appendages  which 
were  made  subservient  to  the  mouth,  the  max- 
illipeds  or  feet  jaws,  try  to  revert  into  feet ;  for 
while  in  some  of  the  crustaceans  the  mouth 
organs  extend  to  the  ninth  somite,  in  others 
they  extend  only  to  the  seventh,  the  eighth 
and  ninth  refusing  to  perform  the  functions  of 
nutrition,  and  preferring  to  assist  their  owner 
in  getting  about  in  the  world. 

The  young  Crustacea  have  as  many  odd  cra- 
dles as  they  have  odd  shapes  to  their  bodies. 
The  young  canthocamptus  rocks  on  the  waves 
in  a  sack  attached  to  the  body  of  the  parent ; 
the  mysis  lives  in  a  pouch  like  a  young  kanga- 
roo ;  the  crabs  are  glued,  in  a  mass  similar  to  a 
spider's  ball,  to  the  legs  of  the  mother ;  the  arc- 
turus  is  cradled  in  the  branching  horns  or  an- 
tennae of  the  old  one ;  the  daphnia  is  carried 
under  the  coat  on  the  back  of  the  mother ; 
while  the  prodocerus  lives  in  a  genuine  little 
bird's  nest  down  deep  in  the  sea. 


CRUSTACEANS. 


119 


I. 

(Daphnia.) 

In  the  fall,  when  most  of  the  aquatic  vege- 
tation is  dead  and  the  water  of  the  ponds  is 
clear,  a  great  many  small  round  specks  may  be 
seen  jumping  and  jerking  about. 

One  of  these  animals  is  the  Daphnia  which 
has  an  oval  bivalve  shell  and,  usually,  a  spine 


FIG.  37. — Daphnia  pulex. 

above  the  middle  of  the  posterior  portion, 
though  this,  like  the  teeth  of  higher  animals, 
is  generally  absent  in  old  specimens.  Through 
the  lower  opening,  between  the  two  valves  of 


120  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

the  shell,  you  will  often  catch  a  glimpse  of 
something  protruded  and  withdrawn  with  such 
lightning  rapidity  that  you  are  not  sure  it  is 
not  an  optical  illusion  until  some  time  when 
the  daphnia  is  lazy  or  is  nearly  exhausted  for 
lack  of  water  and  fails  to  withdraw  this  object, 
and  then  you  perceive  that  it  is  a  foot  or  claw, 
tipped  with  bristles,  and  that  it  is  the  action  of 
this  claw  which  gives  the  animal  its  irregular, 
jerky  motion ;  for,  instead  of  sailing  or  crawl- 
ing or  swimming  along,  the  daphnia  'kicks  itself 
along  by  pushing  this  foot  out  behind.  When 
necessary  it  uses  this  brushlike  claw  for  scav- 
enger and  police  duty.  It  welcomes  all  comers, 
protozoan,  egg,  vegetable  matter,  and  even  par- 
ticles of  poison  coloring  matter,  packing  them 
in  till  the  vestibule  in  front  of  its  mouth  is 
full ;  then  it  opens  the  door  and  samples  them. 
If  it  does  not  like  their  flavor,  it  kicks  the 
whole  mass  out  and  sweeps  the  vestibule  clean 
with  its  broom.  In  front  of  this  claw  are  many 
smaller,  fringelike  feet,  which  are  seldom  pro- 
truded from  the  shell,  but  which  move  regular- 
ly with  a  breathing  motion.  Above  these  feet, 
about  midway  along  the  animal,  is  an  alimen- 
tary canal  ending  in  a  cloaca.  The  canal,  feet, 
and  claw  seem  to  be  entirely  free  from  the 
shell,  and  are  all,  at  frequent  intervals,  bent 


CRUSTACEANS.  121 

down  and  forward,  leaving  the  back  and  rear 
of  the  shell  empty.  This  habit  distinguishes 
the  daphnia  from  others  of  these  small  crus- 
taceans, none  of  which  move  the  claw  except 
downward  and  backward.  Above  the  canal, 
close  under  the  top  of  the  shell  and  near  the 
head,  is  a  rapidly  pulsating  heart,  which  sends 
colorless  blood  through  the  body  two  or  three 
hundred  times  a  minute. 

The  head  of  the  daphnia  is  a  large,  rounded 
beak,  at  the  extremity  of  which  is  an  enormous 
eye,  of  a  color  so  dark  green  as  to  appear  black. 
It  is  turned  by  three  pairs  of  muscles,  and  is 
the  first  movable  eye  we  have  seen.  From  either 
side  the  neck  grows  something  you  would  call 
stag's  horns.  These  are  the  large,  branched  an- 
tennae, round  and  jointed  like  a  bamboo  pole. 

Along  the  back,  under  the  shell  and  above 
the  body,  is  the  brood  cavity  in  which  there 
are  sometimes  eight  or  ten  eggs.  This  is  the 
incubator,  in  which  the  eggs  are  hatched  and 
where  the  young  are  cared  for  until  they  are 
fitted  for  an  independent  life. 

If  the  children  are  too  ambitious  to  see  the 
world  in  their  youth,  the  mother  promptly 
kicks  them  back  into  this  nursery ;  for  the 
young  are  sprawling,  helpless  things,  having 
no  shell,  no  alimentary  canal,  and  only  three 


122  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

pairs  of  feet,  and  the  mother  thinks  no  one  is 
fitted  to  appear  in  polite  society  until  she  has 
at  least  ten  feet. 

This  is  one  of  the  creatures  that  have  sum- 
mer and  winter  eggs.  All  summer  there  are 
none  but  lady  Daphnise,  and  they  lay  the  sum- 
mer eggs  and  rear  the  "  summer  girls."  When 
haying  and  harvest  are  over,  about  the  time 
that  you  begin  to  watch  for  the  falling  leaves 
and  dropping  nuts  of  autumn,  the  lazy  gentle- 
men Daphnise  come  pushing  their  way  through 
the  water  with  an  air  of  great  importance. 
They  prefer  the  winter  time,  when  there  is 
not  much  to  do  except  skate  about  under 
the  ice. 

When  spring  work  begins  again,  only  one 
kind  of  Daphnise  are  to  be  found,  the  gentle- 
men having  taken  their  departure. 


II. 

(Cypris.) 


There  is  a  little  kidney-shaped  Cypris, 
which,  when  green  and  lying  quiet  with  feet 
drawn  into  the  shell  and  its  house  securely 
locked,  may  easily  be  taken  for  a  leaf  of  duck- 


CRUSTACEANS.  123 

weed.  The  deception  is  still  more  perfect  when 
the  shell  is  ornamented  with  mosses  and  filigree 
in  the  shape  of  diatoms  whose  shells  are  at- 
tached to  the  cypris,  making  a  fringe  around  it. 

When  the  cypris  travels  it  opens  the  two 
valves  of  its  shell  just  far  enough  to  permit  the 
protrusion  of  the  two  pairs  of  antennae  and  the 
four  long,  hair-tufted  clusters  of  bristles  which 
it  palms  off  upon  us  as  feet.  It  swims  rapidly 
by  jerking  these  feet  back  and  forth.  When 
molested  it  quickly  withdraws  them  and  sinks 
to  the  bottom.  When  trying  to  walk  on  these 
pencils  of  bristles  it  wobbles  ludicrously. 

One  pair  of  antennae  is  long,  jointed,  and 
feathery,  and  is  used  for  swimming ;  the  other 
is  stout  and  footlike. 

The  cypris  deposits  twenty-four  eggs  in  a 
mass,  afterward  taking  each  egg  singly  and 
spending  about  thirty  minutes  in  gluing  it  to 
vegetation.  When  the  little  one  hatches  as  a 
nauplius  with  three  pairs  of  appendages,  it  has 
a  house  already  on  its  back,  and  in  four  and  a 
half  days  it  can  not  be  distinguished  from  its 
parents. 

When  the  water  of  the  pond  dries,  the  cy- 
pris, following  the  example  of  other  crusta- 
ceans, hides  in  the  mud.  It  evinces  great  wis- 
dom in  so  doing,  for  if  all  the  moisture 
10 


124  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

evaporates  and  the  mud  becomes  dust  the  little 
creature  is  sure  to  die ;  and  then,  you  see,  if 
it  had  not  taken  the  precaution  to  bury  itself 
before  dying,  it  would  have  to  go  unsepulchered 
because  all  its  friends  would  be  dead  too,  and 
there  would  be  no  one  left  to  dig  its  grave. 
But  if  the  rains  come  before  the  mud  is  baked, 
all  the  cypris  has  to  do  is  to  creep  out  of  its 
hiding  place,  rub  its  one  eye,  and  pretend  it 
has  only  been  taking  a  nap. 

The  eggs  survive  in  the  dust  and  heat,  so 
when  the  rainy  season  comes  the  pond  is  soon 
full  of  lively  cyprides,  which  are  green,  brown, 
and  dull  white,  but  none  of  them  very  interest- 
ing,— perhaps  because  they  are  so  omnipresent. 


III. 

THE  FAIRY  SHRIMP. 
(Branchipus.) 

There  are  some  crustaceans  that  are  truly 
charming  in  dress  and  manner,  and  such  a  one 
is  the  Branchipus,  or  Fairy  Shrimp.  (See  fron- 
tispiece.) 

Very  early  in  the  spring  they  are  to  be 
found  in  the  shallow  pools  formed  by  melting 


CRUSTACEANS.  125 

snow.  From  such  a  pool,  and  in  no  very  mys- 
terious manner,  a  company  of  these  fairies  used 
every  season  to  find  their  way  into  a  house  in 
a  certain  little  city  of  the  western  prairies. 
They  always  came  in  a  bright  tin  pan,  within 
which  the  beautiful  pearl  and  pink  creatures 
swam  on  their  backs,  gently  rowing  along  with 
their  eleven  pairs  of  swimming  feet  uppermost. 
They  were  a  pretty  sight ;  and  the  thought  of 
them  is  still  associated  with  that  of  early  flow- 
ers and  the  budding  freshness  of  springtime. 
But  the  pan  had  to  be  kept  in  a  cool  place,  or 
presently  the  fairies  vanished  ;  for  they  can  not 
endure  heat,  and  by  the  middle  of  May  they 
are  a  story  that  is  told.  The  pool  is  full  of 
them  one  day,  and,  if  the  sun  comes  out  warm, 
the  next  day  they  are  fled,  leaving  no  trace 
behind — except  for  the  zoologist,  who  can  rec- 
ognize their  eggs. 

They  are  the  largest  animals  we  have  yet 
noticed,  being  sometimes  an  inch  in  length, 
with  stout  bodies,  large  heads,  and  very  large 
eyes.  In  front  the  male  has  two  unequal  ap- 
pendages, and  on  one  is  a  bristlelike  claw. 
(See  frontispiece.)  The  female  carries  a  single 
egg  sack,  which  is  a  modification  of  the  eleventh 
pair  of  feet. 

In  this  fairy  Nature  seems  to  be  making 


126  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

another  of  her  experiments.  With  the  excep- 
tion of  the  daphnia's,  eyes  thus  far  have  been 
dim,  and  would  not  turn  so  as  to  look  in  va- 
rious directions.  So  Nature  has  set  the  eyes  of 
the  fairy  shrimp  on  stalks,  that  they  may  look 
about  the  world  more  readily.  You  see,  she 
made  several  experiments  with  eyes  before  she 
achieved  man's  eye.  In  the  first  place,  there 
was  the  dim  sense  organ  of  the  euglena,  placed 
flat  in  the  front  part  of  the  body,  with  no  sock- 
et, and  entirely  unable  to  turn  or  to  see.  It 
could  barely  distinguish  light  from  darkness. 
Then  there  were  better  eyes,  like  those  of  the 
rotifer,  but  still  they  could  not  turn  and  could 
see  only  what  lay  in  one  direction.  Then  came 
the  stalked  eyes  of  the  branchipus  and  its  kin- 
dred, the  lobsters  and  crayfish.  But  these  eyes 
are  likely  to  be  broken  off,  standing  out  from 
the  body  as  they  do.  So  Nature  tried  making 
sessile  eyes — that  is,  eyes  lying  mostly  in  sock- 
ets so  as  to  be  protected  by  the  body ;  and  she 
gave  to  some  a  transparent  lid,  and  to  some  a 
movable  lid  to  close  over  and  further  protect 
them.  The  first  of  these  eyes  were  placed  on 
opposite  sides  of  the  head,  like  those  of  a  fish  or 
a  robin.  But  these  were  still  not  satisfactory, 
for  the  two  eyes  do  not  see  the  same  things, 
one  looking  to  the  right,  the  other  to  the  left, 


CRUSTACEANS. 

— you  know  how  a  robin  has  to  turn  its  head 
to  see  what  lies  in  front  of  it  ?  At  last,  Na- 
ture made  the  large,  movable,  lid-shielded  eyes 
of  man,  which  can  look  forward  and  can  focus 
on  the  same  object ;  and  she  set  them  in  a 
head  supported  by  a  slender  neck,  so  that  the 
head  may  turn  and  allow  the  eyes  to  sweep 
the  whole  circle  of  the  horizon. 

And  now,  perhaps,  she  need  make  no  more 
experiments ;  for  she  has  joined  with  these  eyes 
a  brain  which  can  work  out  her  experiments 
for  her.  When  there  is  need  of  an  eye  which 
can  see  more  minutely,  the  brain  invents  a  mi- 
croscope or  a  pair  of  spectacles*  and  when 
there  is  need  of  an  eye  that  can  see  millions  of 
millions  of  miles  into  space,  the  brain  invents 
a  telescope. 

IV. 

(  CantJiocamptus.) 

You  have  been  waiting  for  the  clown  to 
make  his  appearance,  and  here  he  comes  tum- 
bling into  the  ring,  one  moment  traveling  on 
his  side  and  the  next  bundling  along  with  head 
and  heels  touching  each  other.  He  is  a  great 
contortionist,  having  a  body  made  up  of  jointed 
segments  so  that  he  can  bend  it  readily. 


128 


IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 


If  you  don't  use  your  opera  glass  you  will 
think  he  is  a  tiny  worm  wriggling  along,  but  if 
you  do  use  it  he  will  appear  for  all  the  world 
like  the  gentleman  in  Fig.  38.  He  has  one 
eye,  two  pairs  of  antennae,  and  five  pairs  of 
legs,  but,  as  in  most  of  these  minute  crusta- 
ceans, the  antennae  are  of  more  service  than  the 


FIG.  38.—Canthocamptus. 


legs  in  swimming,  though  under  the  micro- 
scope he  seems  to  propel  himself  by  vigorous 
flexions  of  his  tail. 

His  body  is  largest  in  front,  and  is  long, 
narrow,  and  shaped  like  an  Indian  club,  except 
that  the  under  side  is  flattened.  He  usually 
clothes  himself  in  a  single  garment  of  dull,  dirty 
hue,  but  sometimes  wears  pink  or  flesh-color. 


CRUSTACEANS.  129 

Our  clown  seems  to  be  of  rather  an  irrita- 
ble disposition.  Two  of  them  once  became 
penned  in  by  threadlike  roots  which  happened 
to  be  in  the  ring.  They  rushed  this  way  and 
that,  trying  to  escape,  flexing  their  heels  over 
their  heads  angrily,  seeming  much  distressed 
at  their  situation.  At  length  one,  evidently 
blaming  the  other  for  his  capture,  seized  his 
companion  and  hung  on  like  a  dog,  apparently 
by  his  teeth.  It  was  a  savage  grip,  and  re- 
laxed only  when  the  water  on  the  slide  dried, 
and  death  came  to  the  relief  of  both. 

Like  misers,  they  carry  a  bag  of  gold ;  but 
this  kind  of  gold  is  made  into  transparent  balls 
or  eggs,  and  is  borne  in  a  sack  attached  to  their 
bodies  and  floating  beside  them.  These  eggs 
hatch  in  the  sack,  for  this  clown  of  a  cantho- 
camptus  and  his  kindred,  the  branchipus  and 
cyclops,  do  not  wear  a  shell  nor  have  a  brood 
cavity  as  the  daphnia  does.  They  dress  in 
tights  made  of  a  thin  crust  like  that  worn  by 
the  lobster  and  crayfish. 

You  would  never  know  that  the  children 
belonged  to  the  family  if  you  should  meet 
them,  for  they  do  not  resemble  their  parents  in 
form  or  feature.  In  about  two  days  they  molt, 
or  peel  off  their  tights,  and  this  cast-off  garment 
carries  with  it  the  cases  of  the  limbs  and  plumes 


130  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

even  to  the  most  delicate  hairs.  But  the  young 
one  that  comes  out  has  all  these  again,  and  often 
new  limbs,  and  each  succeeding  time  a  shape 
more  like  its  parents',  until  after  several  rnolt- 
ings  it  comes  out  a  full-grown  perfect  cantho- 
camptus. 

A  curious  thing  about  this  is,  that  if  a  limb 
be  broken  or  torn  from  one  of  these  young  ani- 
mals, it  recovers  that  limb  when  it  molts  the 
next  time. 

One  might  almost  think  the  crustaceans 
knew  this,  from  the  readiness  some  of  them 
evince  in  parting  with  portions  of  their  anat- 
omy; for,  if  you  lightly  touch  the  joints  of 
their  legs  with  a  pin,  they  instantly  discard  the 
lower  joints. 

And  this  is  something  which  we  may  apply 
to  human  beings;  for  perhaps,  if  we  have  lost 
arms  or  legs  or  even  mental  faculties,  or  even 
if  we  never  possessed  those  mental  faculties, 
but  have  been  deficient  in  them  as  the  young 
canthocamptus  is  in  limbs,  we  may  recover  all 
we  have  lost  and  obtain  yet  more  when  we 
molt, — or  as  we  usually  express  it,  when  we 
die  and  go  to  heaven. 

There  are  some  people  who  wish  they  could 
overcome  death  and  preserve  their  present 
bodies  forever.  But  you  see  this  would  be  a 


CRUSTACEANS.  131 

disadvantage,  for  they  could  never  recover  the 
amputated  limbs  nor  the  lost  minds  if  they 
didn't  slough  off  this  outgrown  sheath  of  a 
body ;  neither  could  they  acquire  faculties  in 
which  they  have  always  been  wanting. 

So,  too,  it  seems  that  it  would  be  a  disad- 
vantage for  us  to  molt  but  once,  and  then  to 
remain  forever  and  forever  in  the  next  stage,  as 
people  used  to  think  we  would ;  for  that  would 
mean  that  we  ceased  to  advance  after  this  one 
molting  which  we  call  death. 

And  don't  you  think  it  would  be  better  to 
keep  right  on  growing  and  molting,  acquiring 
new  faculties  each  time  like  the  young  crusta- 
ceans, and  each  time  coming  out  of  the  old  case 
more  and  more  nearly  resembling  our  one  per- 
fect Parent  and  Creator  ? 

"But  what  has  this  to  do  with  cantho- 
campti  or  cy clops  or  diaptomi  ? "  Why,  this  : 
they  have  taught  us  what  a  blessing  death  is. 


Y. 

(Diaptomus.) 

The  most  brilliant  creature  of  all  is  the  scar- 
let Diaptomus,  with  its  six  thoracic  segments, 
its  five  narrow  abdominal  segments,  its  brush- 


132  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

like  tail  of  two  parts,  its  jointed,  feathery  feet, 
and  its  two  antennae  as  long  as  the  body.  The 
antennae  are  jointed  and  curve  gracefully  back- 
ward when  the  animal  swims.  The  heart  may 
be  seen  to  beat  under  the  middle  of  the  cara- 
pax.  The  legs  are  made  of  flattened  segments, 
and  so  feathered  as  to  resemble  palm  plants. 

The  female  carries  one  external  ovary  or 
egg  sack.  The  diaptomus  is  one  tenth  of  an 
inch  in  length,  and,  like  the  branchipus,  is  a 
lover  of  cool  water,  being  found  only  in  fall  or 
early  spring,  and  making  its  home  in  shallow 
pools.  The  one  most  common  with  us  is  red ; 
but  there  are  those  that  wear  white,  others 
with  robes  of  purple,  and  others  that  wear  blue 
and  have  antennae  tipped  with  bright  purple. 

It  might  be  mistaken  for  a  cyclops,  from 
which  it  may  be  distinguished  by  its  unusually 
long,  single  pair  of  antennae,  the  cyclops  hav- 
ing two  pairs  of  shorter  ones.  It  has  a  comely 
figure,  but  its  chief  beauty  lies  in  the  brilliant 
color  which  extends  through  antennae,  legs,  and 
body,  even  to  the  tip  of  its  tail. 


CRUSTACEANS. 


133 


VI. 
THE  ONE-EYED  GIANT  OF  THE  MILL  POND. 

(Cyclops.) 

There  is  an  old  poem  that  the  Greeks 
used  to  love  which  tells  of  the  trials  and  dan- 
gers that  beset  the  hero  Ulysses — or  Odysseus, 
as  they  called  him — as  he  journeyed  homeward 


FIG.  39. — Cyclops  quadricornis :  a,  young. 

from  the  Trojan  war.  It  took  Ulysses  twenty 
years  to  reach  his  home,  and  he  had  so  many 
narrow  escapes  the  wonder  is  that  he  ever 
reached  it  at  all. 

On  one  occasion  in  particular  he  came  very 
near  to  death.  As  the  story  goes,  his  ships 
were  swept  by  storms  against  a  strange  coast. 
Ulysses  and  his  companions  went  ashore  to  ex- 


134  IN  BROOK  AND   BAYOU. 

plore  the  land,  discovered  a  cave,  which  they 
entered,  and,  finding  presses  full  of  cheeses, 
vats  full  of  milk,  and  casks  of  wine,  they 
feasted  and  made  merry,  not  knowing  that  the 
cave  was  the  abode  of  a  fierce  and  terrible 
Cyclops,  a  huge  giant  who  had  one  fiery  eye 
set  in  the  middle  of  his  forehead.  At  sun- 
down the  giant  came  home,  drove  his  flocks 
into  the  cave  and  shut  the  door.  The  door  of 
the  cave  was  a  rock,  so  immense  that  Ulysses 
knew  he  and  his  men  would  be  powerless  to 
remove  it.  He  saw  that  they  were  prisoners, 
and  the  giant  looked  so  terrible  and  roared  so 
frightfully  that  the  captives  shrank  trembling 
into  the  farthest  recesses  of  the  cavern.  When 
the  Cyclops  had  milked  his  flocks  he  built  a 
great  fire,  and  approaching  Ulysses  and  his  men 
he  reached  forth  his  hands,  seized  two  of  the 
men  by  the  heels,  swung  them  around,  cracked 
their  heads  together,  and  soon  had  them  broil- 
ing over  the  fire.  Their  terrified  friends  stood 
by  helpless  as  the  giant  crunched  their  bones 
with  his  huge  teeth.  The  next  morning  he 
killed  and  ate  two  more  in  the  same  horrible 
manner.  When  he  drove  his  flocks  to  pasture 
he  took  good  care  to  put  the  rock  over  the 
opening  of  the  cave  so  that  his  captives  should 
not  escape. 


CRUSTACEANS.  135 

That  night  he  killed  two  more,  and  washed 
them  down  his  throat  with  such  quantities  of 
wine  that  he  fell  into  a  drunken  sleep.  While 
he  slept,  Ulysses  and  his  men  bored  out  his  eye 
with  a  sharpened  timber  which  they  had  heated 
red  hot  in  the  fire  that  broiled  the  last  two  of 
their  unfortunate  companions. 

But,  though  he  could  no  longer  see,  the  Cy- 
clops was  wily,  and  he  sat  by  the  door  of  the 
cave,  stretching  his  arms  across  and  feeling  the 
backs  of  the  sheep  as  he  let  them  out  in  the 
morning  so  that  the  prisoners  might  not  escape 
by  riding  out  on  the  sheep's  backs. 

So  Ulysses  and  the  remaining  men  were 
obliged  to  cling  fast  to  the  wool  on  the  under 
side  of  the  sheep  and  be  carried  out  in  that 
way. 

And  simply  because  it  has  one  red  eye  in 
the  middle  of  its  forehead,  the  name  of  Cyclops 
has  been  given  to  a  wee  little  "  oar-footed " 
crustacean,  not  more  than  one  sixteenth  of  an 
inch  in  length,  and  not  at  all  resembling  a 
fierce  and  terrible  giant.  It  seems  a  very 
happy,  lively  little  Cyclops,  constantly  skipping 
about,  and  keeping  its  feet  incessantly  paddling 
the  water. 

The  cyclops  has  no  heart,  the  blood  being 


136  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

kept  in  circulation  by  the  churning  motion  of 
the  intestine.  It  has  four  pairs  of  branched 
legs,  and  mandibles  and  maxillae  fitted  for  bit- 
ing. It  feeds  upon  infusoria  and  smaller  crus- 
taceans, at  times  maintaining  a  catlike  quiet 
till  the  animals  collect  about  it  and  then  sud- 
denly pouncing  upon  one. 

But,  unlike  the  giant,  it  lives  not  so  much 
to  eat  as  to  be  eaten,  for  it  furnishes  the  prin- 
cipal supply  of  food  for  the  smaller  fishes  and 
the  aquatic  larvae.  Even  the  larger  inhabit- 
ants of  the  sea  feed  upon  it,  so  that  when  fish- 
ermen and  whalers  see  schools  of  cy clops  they 
get  their  nets  and  harpoons  ready,  knowing 
that  their  prey  is  at  hand.  Hundreds  of  square 
miles  of  ocean  are  sometimes  filled  with  these 
little  one-eyed  creatures,  for  they  are  immense- 
ly reproductive.  Each  female  carries  two  egg 
sacks,  which  contain  from  forty  to  fifty  eggs, 
and  she  brings  forth  from  eight  to  ten  broods. 
The  young  soon  become  parents,  so  that  a 
cyclops  may  become  the  progenitor  of  4,500,- 
000,000  in  one  year.  On  the  28th  of  Febru- 
ary, 1896,  while  the  ponds  were  still  covered 
with  ice  and  there  was  only  a  narrow  border 
of  water  extending  a  foot  or  two  from  the 
shore,  a  close  observer  might  have  seen  great 
numbers  of  cyclops  darting  about  close  to  the 


CRUSTACEANS.  137 

beach,  and,  cold  as  it  was,  they  carried  weight 
like  John  Gilpin,  "a  bottle  dangling  at  each 
side " ;  for  the  egg  sacks  were  heavily  laden 
and  the  young  had  already  begun  to  hatch. 
The  bottles  are  pear-shaped,  sometimes  dark 
green,  sometimes  amber-colored.  The  young 
hatch  in  the  sacks,  and  may  be  seen  moving 
inside  the  eggshells.  But  "like  parent,  like 
child,"  is  an  adage  that  doesn't  seem  true  at 
first  in  the  case  of  the  nauplius  of  the  cyclops, 
for  the  young  are  quite  unlike  the  parent,  hav- 
ing to  molt  several  times  before  they  attain  the 
same  shape  and  appendages. 

The  eye  of  the  adult  cyclops  is  really  a 
cluster  of  eyes,  so  placed  as  to  appear  to  be  a 
single  one. 

The  eye  of  the  nauplius  looks  like  two  tri- 
angles joined  at  their  apexes,  and  resembles  no 
other  eye  that  ever  was  on  land  or  sea. 

In  the  matter  of  diet  the  cyclops  is  like 
the  giant  of  the  Greek  fable,  for  it  is  a  regular 
cannibal,  devouring  beings  like  itself,  and  even 
eating  its  own  young;  which  is  perhaps  a  good 
thing,  since  there  are  thirty  species  of  them, 
and  even  though  they  do  eat  their  kind,  there 
are  plenty  left,  and  they  may  be  found  all  the 
world  round  and  all  the  year  round.  They 
abound  in  all  stagnant  pools,  in  the  water 


138  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

which  the  Londoner  drinks,  in  that  from  Cro- 
ton  River  which  quenches  the  thirst  of  the 
resident  of  New  York,  and  there  is  a  little 
fellow  skipping  about  in  the  pitcher  of  Spring- 
field (Illinois)  well  water  that  stands  on  my 
table  as  I  write.  This  one  is  a  pale  little  fel- 
low, coming  from  so  far  below  the  sunlight; 
but  it  has  egg  sacks,  as  I  can  tell  without  a 
microscope,  because  it  ends  abruptly  at  the 
rear,  as  if  cut  square  off,  instead  of  tapering 
toward  the  tail. 


CHART  IV. 


Hydra. 


CHAPTEE  VII. 

THE   HUNGKY    GLOVE. 
(Hydra.) 

As  late  as  November  10,  1889,  I  dipped 
some  water  and  duckweed  from  my  favorite 
pond  and  put  it  in  a  glass  jar.  An  old  man  in 
charge  of  the  city  waterworks  near  by,  who 
had  many  times  watched  this  canning  of  slough 
water  with  an  expression  of  wondering  disap- 
probation, at  length  took  courage  to  come  for- 
ward and  investigate  the  matter.  "I've  been 
puzzling  myself  over  what  you  do  with  that," 
he  said. 

"  I  put  it  under  the  microscope  and  study 
the  animals  in  it." 

"Animals?  Taddypoles  and  sich?"  he 
asked,  incredulously. 

"No,  much  smaller  ones.  Look  through 
this  jar  toward  the  light.  Those  specks  dart- 
ing and  jerking  about  are  cypris,  daphnia,  and 
cyclops." 

11  139 


140  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

"  Be  them  dirt  specks  animals  ?  Now,  do 
tell!" 

"Dirt  specks  always  fall  to  the  bottom. 
They  can't  dart  up  toward  the  top  and  side- 
wise.  And  in  here  there  are  probably  tiny 
hollow  tubes,  called  Hydrce,  with  fingers  or 
tentacles  at  the  end  which  look  like  a  very 
small  kid  glove  rolled  together  so  that  the 
thumb  and  little  finger  touch.  Although  they 
don't  look  much  like  one,  they  always  remind 
me  of  a  glove,  because  they  can  be  turned 
wrong  side  out,  fingers  and  all,  and  then  turned 
back  again  without  injury,  just  as  a  glove  can. 
And  there  are  hosts  of  other  animals,  shaped 
like  bells  and  cups  and  boats,  which  are  en- 
tirely invisible." 

"Live  animals  that  can  be  turned  wrong 
side  out  and  others  that  you  can't  see  at  all ! 
Now  just  see  that ! "  remarked  the  old  fellow 
in  growing  amazement.  "And  them's  what 
you  £it  it  for !  I  wondered  if  you  could  be 
usin?  of  it,"  he  said,  with  evident  relief.  And 
he  went  back  to  his  work,  muttering  to  him- 
self :  "  That  there  puddle  swarmin'  with  live 
animals  that  can  be  turned  wrong  side  out  and 
that  can't  be  seen  !  Now  just  think  of  that ! " 

Clinging  to  the  light  side  of  this  can  the 
next  morning  were  what  looked  like  a  dozen 


THE  HUNGRY  GLOVE. 

short  threads  frayed  at  the  free  ends.  (See  cut 
at  end  of  chapter.)  But  to  call  them  threads 
is  to  speak  as  through  a  microscope,  for  the 
speech  magnifies  them  as  much  as  a  half -inch 
objective  would.  Instead,  they  were  in  size 
like  the  finest  strand  of  a  fine  thread,  with  the 
slenderest  possible  lints  or  filaments  fringing 
the  ends.  It  would  seem  that  nothing  could 
be  more  attenuated.  Certainly  the  tentacles  of 
a  small  Hydra  viridis,  or  green  hydra,  must 
be  the  ultimate  object  which  the  unaided  eye 
can  perceive. 

The  brown  ones  {Hydra  vulgaris)  were 
somewhat  larger.  A  coiled  one  clinging  to  the 
glass  looked  at  first  glance  like  a  small  leaflet 
of  Lemna  with  the  roots  attached.  Another 
adult  had  a  young  one  budded  from  its  side, 
and  the  little  one  was  extending  its  tentacles, 
trying  to  earn  its  own  living  in  the  world. 
Afterward  I  saw  this  baby  clinging  alone  on 
the  glass,  a  mere  speck,  with  six  almost  imper- 
ceptible fibers  radiating  from  its  head,  looking 
more  like  a  minute  poppy  seed  trying  to  be  a 
star  than  like  a  living  creature  watching  for  its 
bread  and  butter.  In  another  place  a  parent 
and  child  were  trying  to  swallow  the  same  worm. 

The  five  or  seven  tentacles  of  the  hydrse 
are  their  arms,  and  surround  the  mouth,  which 


142 


IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 


is  nothing  more  than  an  opening  at  the  top  of 
the  hollow  tube.  The  tentacles  are  hollow 
and  covered  with  warts  or  knobs  (3,  Chart 
IV),  and  in  each  knob  is  coiled  a  lasso  with 


FIG.  40.— Hydras. 

a  sting  at  the  end  of  it.  The  hydra  sits  with 
these  long  arms  extended,  and  when  its  prey 
appears,  throws  out  the  lassos  and  paralyzes 
the  victim  with  its  stings.  Then  the  arms 
bend  over  and  force  the  benumbed  victim 
down  the  hydra's  throat. 


THE  HUNGRY  GLOVE.  143 

The  addition  of  a  drop  of  acetic  acid  to  the 
water  on  the  slide  will  irritate  the  hydra,  caus- 
ing it  to  throw  out  its  lasso  lines.  A  shelled 
animal,  like  a  crustacean,  may  be  protected 
from  the  sting  by  its  hard  covering;  but  a 
soft  animal,  like  a  worm,  always  dies  even  when 
the  tentacles  do  not  convey  it  to  the  mouth. 

The  tentacles  also  assist  in  locomotion ;  for 
the  hydra  can  bend  over,  as  in  2,  Fig.  40,  hold- 
ing on  by  the  tentacles  while  it  loosens  its  foot 
and  sets  it  forward,  like  a  measure  worm. 

These  hydrae  may  be  turned,  tentacles  and 
all,  making  skin  into  stomach  and  placing  the 
stomach  outside  where  the  skin  belongs.  After 
two  or  three  days  they  will  eat  again  as  vora- 
ciously as  ever.  You  may  tear  off  their  fingers, 
and  they  will  grow  again.  You  may  cut  them 
into  cross-sections,  and  each  section  will  become 
a  perfect  hydra.  You  may  cut  them  into  strips 
lengthwise,  and  each  strip  will  roll  together 
into  a  tube,  develop  tentacles,  and  presently  go 
on  as  if  nothing  had  happened.  You  may 
even  cut  off  the  head  of  one  and  the  mouth 
will  go  right  along  taking  in  food,  like  the  man 
whose  head  was  cut  off  by  such  a  neat  stroke 
that  he  never  knew  it  was  off,  but  kept  on 
talking,  till  at  length  he  sneezed,  and  the  head 
fell  from  his  shoulders  and  rolled  along  the 


144  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

ground.  You  will  know  now  why  an  evil  which 
is  irrepressible  is  said  to  be  "  hydra-headed." 

The  hydrge  produce  offspring  by  bulging 
out  the  wall  of  the  body  and  forming  a  bud, 
which  is  hollow  and  opens  into  the  body  cav- 
ity of  the  adult,  so  that  what  the  parent  eats 
may  enter  the  body  of  the  offspring,  and  what 
the  offspring  eats  may  enter  into  and  nourish 
the  parent  (1, 1,  Chart  IV ;  3,  Fig.  40).  Some- 
times the  bud  remains  attached  to  the  parent 
and  itself  buds  before  pinching  itself  off  and 
beginning  to  live  independently.  A  colony  of 
nineteen  parents,  children,  and  grandchildren 
have  been  seen  on  one  original  hydra. 

This  is  rather  mixing  up  matters.  But 
these  fresh- water  hydrse  have  some  cousins  who 
live  in  salt  sea  water,  and  who  remain  always 
attached  to  each  other,  with  free  communica- 
tion between  their  body  cavities,  forming  large 
colonies  which  spread  out  like  a  house  of  many 
compartments,  with  halls  and  corridors  leading 
from  one  to  the  other. 

In  these  marine  colonies  it  is  the  business 
of  certain  of  the  hydroids  to  rear  all  the  chil- 
dren, of  certain  others  to  act  as  policemen  and 
protect  the  colony,  and  of  certain  others  to  se- 
cure and  eat  all  the  food  for  the  colony. 

In  these  colonies  one  would  think  that 


THE  HUNGRY  GLOVE.  145 

ture  was  making  her  first  clumsy  experiment 
at  differentiation  of  matter  to  perform  special 
functions,  and  had  not  yet  learned  how  to  con- 
dense her  experiments  into  one  body,  for  in 
these  colonies  we  find  different  functions  as- 
signed to  different  individuals,  and  not  to  differ- 
ent parts  of  one  individual.  We  human  beings 
are  quite  willing  that  some  one  shall  be  ap- 
pointed to  take  care  of  us  and  do  our  work  for 
us,  but  I  do  not  think,  do  you,  that  any  of  us 
wish  to  carry  the  principle  of  division  of  labor 
so  far  as  to  have  another  do  our  eating  for  us  ? 

Our  little  Hydrse  in  the  glass  can  (see  cut 
at  end  of  chapter)  are  doing  their  own  work 
very  energetically  this  morning.  They  are 
grouped  all  along  the  water  ways  on  the  bright- 
est side  of  the  jar,  and  are  spreading  their  nets 
and  fishing  most  industriously. 

And  now  down  the  main  street  of  this 
thriving  aquatic  city,  right  into  the  open  arms 
of  the  Hydrse,  there  comes  hurrying  an  im- 
portant personage.  His  name  is  Sir  Daphnia 
Pulex.  He  must  certainly  be  a  great  railroad 
magnate,  judging  from  his  businesslike  manner 
and  the  ease  with  which  he  brushes  small  fry 
away  with  one  kick  of  that  powerful  hind  foot 
of  his.  He  comes  pushing  along  with  an  air 


146 


IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 


which  indicates  that  the  machinery  of  the  world 
is  waiting  till  he  arrives  to  set  it  in  motion. 


FIG.  41. — Hydra  attacking  a  water  flea. 

But  suddenly  he  pauses.  Has  he  forgotten 
something?  He  does  not  turn  back  after  it. 
He  seems  to  have  changed  his  mind,  and  to 
have  concluded  that  the  affairs  of  the  world 
are  of  no  great  importance,  after  all.  Ah  !  this 


THE  HUNGRY  GLOVE. 


147 


is  what  has  happened  :  He  has  been  hit  by  the 
loose  end  of  a  cable  belonging  to  the  Hydra- 
Electric  Company,  and  the  current  has  been 
discharged  into  him.  His  arms  droop.  His  feet 
no  longer  move.  He  seems  to  be  meditating. 
Perhaps  he  has  been  suddenly  confronted  with 
the  problem,  "  Is  life  worth  living  ? "  and  has 
decided  in  the  negative.  With  one  last  sigh, 
"  Adieu,  vain  world  ! "  he  disappears  down  the 
hydra's  throat.  To-morrow  the  newsboys  of 
this  moist  city  will  be  calling,  "  Tr'bune,  Times  ! 
Thrillin7  account  of  death  b'lectricity !  All 
about  the  tragic  fate  of  Sir  Daphnia  Pulex ! " 

But,  for  the  great  magnate  to-day,  his 
errand  is  no  longer  pressing.  He  has  hung  his 
harp  on  the  willows,  and  dies  a  captive  beside 
the  waters  of  Hydralon. 


Hydralon. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


"PLANTS  AT  THE  MOMENT  OF  BECOMING 


ANIMALS." 


THE  GREEN  SNOWFLAKES. 
(Desmids.) 

EARLY  in  the  month  of  March  the  water  is 
filled  with  moving  green  objects  which  thrive 
in  the  cool  season.  They  are  the  Desmids,  and 
are  plants  in  reality  as  well  as  in  color,  propa- 
gating by  spores.  They  may  be  smooth  or 
rough,  warty  or  spined,  notched  or  toothed,  cut 
or  divided,  round  or  star-shaped,  crescent-shaped 
or  in  bands  of  ribbons;  but  they  are  always 
evenly  green  in  color,  slow  and  stately  in  mo- 
tion, and  move  only  forward,  not  being  able  to 
retrace  their  steps  without  turning  around.  If 
a  desmid  moves  rapidly  or  retreats  without 
turning  about,  you  may  know  that  it  is  not  a 
desmid  but  a  diatom.  It  is  frequently  difficult 
to  distinguish  between  the  two,  for  the  diatom 
is  sometimes  green,  and  both  are  found  with 

148 


PLANTS  BECOMING  ANIMALS. 


149 


the  individuals  growing  side  by  side  in  long 
bands ;  but  the  desmid  adheres  to  stems  of 
plants,  never  having  a  stalk  of  its  own ;  it  loves 
the  place  in  the  bayou  where  the  sunlight  falls, 
and  it  comes  up  to  float  near  the  surface ;  while 
the  diatom  forms  the  brown,  yellow,  and  fawn- 


FIG.  42—Desmids;  f,  Closterium. 

colored  coating  on  the  rocks  at  the  bottom  of 
the  shady  nooks. 

At  the  ends  of  the  desmid,  but  not  of  the 
diatom,  there  are  often  empty  spaces,  near  which 
a  movement  of  liquid  may  be  detected,  which 
movement  resembles  the  rising  of  bubbles  or 


150  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

the  convection  in  water  when  heating.  Besides 
the  clear  space  at  the  ends,  some  of  the  crescent- 
or  bow-shaped  desmids  belonging  to  the  Clos- 
terium  family  have  a  clear  space  in  the  middle, 
and  have  the  pulsatile  vesicles  arranged  in  two 
pairs  (Fig.  42). 

Some  of  them  are  very  pretty,  and  are 
named  Eurastrum,  or  star  disk,  Micrasterias, 
or  little  star,  etc. 

The  desmids  are  most  active  and  most  nu- 
merous in  March  and  April,  which  is  their  time 
for  conjugation.  They  multiply  by  fission  as 
well  as  by  spores,  and  when  dividing,  one  part 
remains  quiet  while  the  other  sways  about  and 
breaks  off  with  a  jerk.  Then  the  ends  that 
were  attached  round  up  and  assume  the  cus- 
tomary shape  of  the  species. 

There  are  more  than  four  hundred  species, 
all  living  in  clean,  placid  water,  and  so  afraid 
of  the  restless  salt  sea  that  they  will  not  grow 
in  running  streams,  for  fear  of  being  carried 
down  to  the  ocean. 


PLANTS  BECOMING  ANIMALS. 

II. 

THE  FIRST  MUSICIAN. 
(Diatom.) 

The  people  of  Sweden  and  Norway  use  for 
food  an  extremely  fine,  cream-colored  powder 


FIG.  43. — Orthosira  Dressc&ri. 

which  they  find  in  the  mountains  and  which 
they  call  "  mountain  meal." 

In  Italy  there  is  a  white  earth  that  is  used 
in  the  manufacture  of  candies. 

The  meal  and  the  earth  both  consist  in 
deposits  of  immense  numbers  of  very  minute 


FIG.  44. — Nitzschia  vivax. 


animals,  called  Diatoms,  which  have  thin  sili- 
cious  shells.  Thirty  miles  above  San  Francisco 
is  a  white  clay  composed  of  the  same  thing. 
The  flint  which  is  used  for  Indian  arrowheads 


152 


IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 


is  fossil  shells  of  diatoms  hardened  by  the  in- 
ternal fires  of  the  earth. 

Grindstones  and  whetstones  on  which  you 
sharpen  your  hatchets  and  knives  are  made  of 


FIG.  45. — Pinnularia 
major. 


FIG.  4Q.—Stauroneis 
Phmnicenteron. 


the  same  gritty  shells,  packed  and  consolidated 
in  the  same  way  by  heat.  The  sand  used  for 
fine  iron  castings  comes  from  these  same  sili- 
cious  deposits  of  diatom  frustules. 

These  shells  are  seldom  more  than  1 0  ft  0  0 
of  an  inch  in  thickness,  so  you  can  try  to  esti- 


PLANTS  BECOMING  ANIMALS. 


153 


mate   how   many  of  them  it  would   take   to 
form  the  deposit  eighteen  feet  deep  under  the 
city  of  Richmond,  Virginia. 
And  if  you  succeed  in  that, 
you  may  enjoy  trying  to  esti- 
mate    how    many    diatoms 
went  to  the  making  of  the 
deposit    in    Victoria    Land, 


FIG.  47. — Navicula  didyma. 


FIG.  48. — Pleurosigma 
formosum. 


which  is  400  miles  long,  120  miles  wide,  and 
of  unknown  thickness. 

You  will  be  prepared  to  admit  after  this 
calculation  that  diatoms  must  have  been  some- 


154:  IN  BROOK  AND   BAYOU. 

what  numerous  in  the  times  when  these  beds 
were  formed.  So  they  were,  and  so  they 
are  now;  for,  besides  the  cy clops  of  which  I 
told  you,  thirty  species  have  been  found  in 
the  filter  through  which  the  Croton  River 
water  is  strained  at  the  Astor  House,  New 
York;  there  are  three  hundred  species  in 
Lake  Michigan;  they  form  the  brown  velvet 
patches  on  the  mud  of  ponds  and  marshes; 
and  in  some  places  the  waters  of  the  ocean 
literally  swarm  with  them,  from  the  surface  to 
the  lowest  depth  to  which  light  can  penetrate, 
and  from  the  tropics  to  the  circumpolar  re- 
gions. 

When  you  see  under  your  microscope  a 
little  brown  boat-shaped  object  drifting  help- 
lessly along,  like  an  empty  canoe,  you  may  be 
sure  that  a  tragedy  has  occurred,  for  this  is  the 
deserted  house  of  a  little  diatom  that  was  swal- 
lowed by  some  other  animal  which  sucked  all 
the  life  and  juices  out  of  it  and  then  cast  away 
the  shell ;  for  birds,  oysters,  whelks,  crabs,  lob- 
sters, amoebae,  sun  animalcules,  paramcecii,  and 
even  some  aquatic  plants  prey  upon  diatoms. 

The  elaborate  and  artistic  manner  in  which 
the  diatom  ornaments  his  house  can  be  best 
studied  from  these  empty  shells.  The  shells 
are  spiral,  square,  heart-shaped,  wedge-shaped, 


PLANTS  BECOMING  ANIMALS.  155 

boat-shaped,  or  circular,  and  are  exquisitely 
carved,  toothed,  or  dotted.  Nothing  can  ex- 
ceed the  vividness  in  color  of  some,  or  the 
delicacy  in  marking  of  others. 

Diatoms  grow  on  branching  stems  like  tiny 
trees ;  in  clear  or  muddy,  fresh  or  brackish 
water ;  in  running  streams,  or  in  pools  left  by 
the  retreating  tide. 

Owing  to  their  peculiar  structure,  they  prop- 
agate by  a  curious  self-division.  The  shell 
is  composed  of  two  parts  which  fit  together 
like  the  two  parts  of  a  pill  box ;  and  when 
they  multiply,  the  cover  and  box  separate, 
the  one  forming  a  new  box,  the  other  a  new 
cover. 

Diatoms  are  modified  by  environment,  just 
as  people  are :  if  individuals  of  the  same  species 
are  placed  in  different  localities,  their  descend- 
ants become  so  unlike  as  to  be  assigned  to  dif- 
ferent species;  as  the  children  of  twin  broth- 
ers become  entirely  dissimilar  if  one  lives  in 
the  country  and  the  other  in  the  city. 

When  the  diatom  is  alive,  it  moves  a  cer- 
tain distance  in  one  direction  and  then  reverses 
engine  and  returns  on  the  same  track  without 
turning  around. 

The   rhythmic   movement   of    the   curious 

Bacillaria  is  most  significant. 
12 


156  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

The  Bacillaria paradoxa  resembles  a  bundle 
of  short  round  rods  which  seem  to  be  attached 
to  each  other  by  invisible  elastic  threads.  The 
center  rod  or  frustule  remains  stationary  while 
those  on  either  side  move  in  opposite  direc- 
tions, stretching  out  till  the  ends  are  barely  in 
contact,  and  each  seems  about  to  part  company 
with  the  one  behind  it ;  but  here,  as  if  held  by 


FIG.  49. — Bacillaria  paradoxa. 

an  invisible  thong,  they  pause  an  instant,  and 
then  retrace  their  steps  with  regular  motion, 
passing  the  center  one,  and  moving  to  the  limit 
of  motion  in  the  opposite  direction.  And  each 
frustule  keeps  time  with  the  movements  of  the 
corresponding  one  on  the  other  side  of  the  sta- 
tionary frustule. 

Not  only  that,  but  if  the  advancing  frus- 
tule meets  with  an  obstacle  which  bars  its 
progress,  it  does  not  return  at  once,  but  waits 
until  its  mate  on  the  other  side  has  reached  a 
corresponding  position  on  the  return  journey, 


PLANTS  BECOMING  ANIMALS.  157 

when  it  takes  up  the  march  without  marring 
the  rhythm,  like  a  chorus  singer  who  waits  for 
a  certain  beat  so  that  he  may  not  destroy  the 
harmony. 

This  motion  of  the  Bacillaria  paradoxa 
is  supposed  to  be  due  to  the  action  of  light 
and  heat,  since  it  is  in  direct  ratio  to  the 
amount  of  light  and  heat  received,  and  ceases 
in  darkness. 

Now  what  can  this  rhythmic  motion  and  the 
inability  of  the  rods  to  break  asunder  mean, 
but  that  the  movement  is  due  to  the  electricity 
in  the  sunlight,  and  that  the  invisible  thong 
which  binds  the  rods  is  electric  polarity  ? 

So  we  learn  from  this  microscopic  bacil- 
laria  that  light  and  heat  are  rhythmical,  and 
we  know  at  last  why  the  planets  move  in  such 
unvarying  regularity  and  without  discord.  We 
know,  too,  that  all  the  universe  is  rhythmical, 
musical,  and  that  there  is  absolute  truth  in  that 
beautiful  old  phrase,  "  When  the  morning  stars 
sang  together." 

And  now  and  then  there  lives  a  man  who 
feels  this  rhythm  more  keenly  than  his  fellow- 
meo,  and  is  capable  of  transmitting  it  through 
his  finger  tips,  and  in  him  we  have  a  great 
musical  composer.  And  he,  this  Mendelssohn 
or  Beethoven,  says :  "  I  did  not  create  this 


158  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

music,  I  discovered  it.  I  found  it.  It  is  in  the 
air.  It  is  everywhere."  And  this  is  true.  It 
is  in  sunlight,  which  acts  alike  upon  a  bacillaria 
and  a  Beethoven.  The  movement  of  the  bacil- 
laria is  part  of  an  everlasting  symphony ;  and 
as  we  watch  the  motion  of  the  paradoxa  rods 
sliding  gently  and  smoothly  in  perfect  unison, 
or  resting  till  it  is  time  again  to  join  in  the 
symphony,  we  are  listening  with  our  eyes  to 
the  music  of  the  spheres ;  we  are  learning  that 
man  and  the  stars  are  part  of  one  great  har- 
mony, and  sway  to  the  same  rhythm  which 
beats  upon  the  bacillaria  in  the  sands  on  the 
seashore. 

Or,  to  express  it  so  as  to  strike  a  boy's 
fancy,  man  and  the  stars  and  a  grindstone 
dance  to  the  same  music. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

WIGGLERS  AND  MINUET  DANCERS. 

BESIDE  all  this  vast  host  of  animals  that 
swarm  in  the  lakes  and  ponds,  there  are  im- 
mense numbers  of  insect  larvae,  breathing  water, 
eating  cyclops  and  infusoria,  tarrying  awhile 
on  their  way  to  the  upper  air,  which  is  the  dip- 
ter's  and  neuropter's  heaven.  But  because  they 
are  going  to  their  heaven  by  and  by  they  do 
not  belittle  the  life  they  now  have,  nor  per- 
suade themselves  that  it  is  a  weary  pilgrimage, 
to  be  endured  with  patience  in  view  of  the 
recompense  to  come. 

The  larva  swims  gayly  about,  catching  cy- 
clops, smacking  his  lips  when  he  gets  a  fat  one, 
and  making  the  most  of  this  world  down  in 
the  water.  After  a  while  he  climbs  up  on  a 
bush  and  shuffles  off  his  mortal  coil  by  split- 
ting his  coat  down  the  back  and  crawling  out 
of  it.  He  rests  awhile,  drying  his  wings  and 
getting  his  new  breathing  apparatus  into  work- 

159 


160 


IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 


ing  order.     Then   he  whets  his  bill  on  the 
branches,  and  says : 

Fe  fo  fi  f urn, 

I  smell  the  blood  of  an  Englishman ; 

Dead  or  aliye  I  will  have  some  ! 

and  he  sucks  the  blood  of  the  first  boy  he 
catches  fishing. 

In  the  blackest  muck  of  the  ponds  where 
there  is  a  rich  deposit  of  decomposed  vegetable 
matter  one  may  sometimes  see 
a  great  wriggling,  as  of  many 
fine  threads  standing  in  the 
water,  with  rapid  undulations 
running  up  and  down  through 
each  one.  The  thread  is  the 
SfaephuriSj  a  worm  that  is 
covered  with  dark,  angular 
marking,  resembling  a  news- 
paper advertisement.  It  is 
very  slender,  so  that  it  re- 
quires the  closest  scrutiny  to 
detect  one  even  when  aided 
by  the  movement  of  the  whole 
FIG.  50.-strePhuris.  company.  ^  A  single  one  would 
escape  notice ;  but,  being  very 
sociable,  they  live  in  large  colonies.  Early 
in  spring  the  edge  of  some  ponds  is  com- 
pletely cushioned  with  these  wriggling  bodies. 


WRIGGLERS  AND  MINUET  DANCERS.         161 

They  stand  on  their  heads  in  the  mire,  and 
keep  up  an  incessant  wagging  of  their  tails. 
This  seems  to  be  their  business  in  life — a  busi- 
ness which  they  have  solemnly  pledged  them- 
selves to  follow  so  long  as  they  all  do  live. 
Whether  it  is  work  or  play  is  hard  to  decide. 
It  may  be  they  are  dancing  the  minuet,  with 
their  bowings  and  curvetings.  Or  they  may 
be  serious  creatures,  feeling  that  the  duties  of 
life  require  unremitting  toil ;  for  they  never 
rest  a  moment.  I  once  dipped  up  some,  with 
the  muck  in  which  they  are  found,  and  put 
them  in  a  glass  can.  As  soon  as  the  mud  set- 
tled, there  they  were,  wiggling  with  the  utmost 
energy.  They  never  stopped  except  when  a 
little  water  beetle  came  among  them ;  then  they 
disappeared  as  if  by  magic.  But  as  soon  as  he 
was  gone  they  began  to  stretch  up  out  of  their 
burrows  and  set  to  work  again.  At  morn  or 
at  eve,  by  night  or  by  day,  week  in  and  week 
out,  for  the  three  months  that  I  kept  them,  there 
they  were,  always  standing  with  their  heads  in 
the  mud,  wriggling.  What  they  eat,  how  they 
multiply,  or  whether  they  die,  this  deponent 
saith  not.  Their  life  history  seems  to  be 
summed  up  in  one  word — wiggle. 

Some  aquatic  worms  have  the  ability  to 
turn  their  middle  segment  into  a  head,  divid- 


162 


IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 


ing  themselves  into  two  animals.  The  genus 
Lumbriculus  forms  a  new  head  when  the  old 
one  is  cut  off, — a  proceeding  which  suggests  a 
deficiency  in  man  for  which  society  ought  per- 
haps to  be  profoundly  thankful. 

Occasionally  w^e  meet  people  who  speak  of 
themselves  as  "  humble  worms  of  the  dust,"  and 
usually  the  general  bearing  of  these  individuals 


FIG.  51. — Aulophorus. 

justifies  their  genealogical  claims ;  but  there  are 
other  people  who  might,  with  equal  fitness, 
claim  to  be  worms  of  the  water,  for  in  their 
manner  of  looking  at  the  situation  they  resem- 
ble a  certain  aquatic  worm  known  as  the  Au~ 
lopJiorus.  This  worm  lives  in  a  sheath  made 


WRIGGLERS  AND  MINUET  DANCERS.         163 

from  odds  and  ends  of  debris,  which  is  so  thin 
that  you  may  readily  see  through  it.  The 
aulophorus  climbs  a  little  way  out  of  the  sheath, 
gazes  about,  and  concludes  that  things  don't 
look  to  suit  him,  and  nothing  is  going  right, 
and  the  world  is  all  upside  down.  So  he 
doubles  over,  thrusting  his  head  into  his  case 
farther  and  farther,  and  at  the  same  time  draw- 
ing his  heels  out,  till  presently  his  head  is  at 
the  bottom  of  the  sheath  and  his  heels  are  in 
the  air — or  rather  in  the  water.  Then,  of 
course,  the  world  is  upside  down  to  him;  so 
presently  he  has  to  turn  again. 

But  by  this  time  he  is  a  trifle  dizzy-headed 
and  can  not  see  clearly,  so  matters  seem  more 
crooked  than  ever.  After  looking  about  awhile 
he  reverses  his  position,  with  the  same  discon- 
certing result.  Standing  on  his  head,  every- 
thing is  topsy-turvy,  till  he  again  careens  over, 
by  which  time  he  has  become  so  confused  in 
his  mind  that  he  never  more  can  tell  what  is 
right  side  up  and  what  is  upside  down. 


CHAPTER  X. 

TAKING  VACATIONS. 

IN  all  this  business  of  making  worlds  and 
Beethovens  and  diatoms,  in  the  making  of  root 
feet  and  hair  feet  and  telescopic  feet  and  whip- 
lash feet  and  paddle  feet  and  tentacle  feet  and 
feet  of  sunbeams,  poor  old  Mother  Nature 
must  sometimes  have  grown  weary  of  serious 
work  and  have  wished  for  a  little  recreation. 

Maybe  it  was  for  this  reason  that  she  made 
some  of  the  curious  things  we  find  from  time 
to  time,  such  as  the  Stawridia  and  the  Cercomo- 
naSj  which  do  not  seem  to  know  which  way  they 
wish  to  travel.  Perhaps  it  was  when  she  had 
made  eyes  which  didn't  work  to  suit  her  that, 
by  way  of  ridiculing  herself,  she  made  such 
eyes  and  eye-spots  as  those  of  the  Shore  crabs, 
and  the  Stomapod. 

Once  in  a  while,  too,  there  is  just  the  faint- 
est suggestion  that  she  felt  a  trifle  out  of  sorts 
and  was  looking  around  for  a  good  club,  as 

164 


TAKING  VACATIONS. 


165 


when  she  made  the  Lepas.     But  generally  she 
seems  to  have  been  very  facetious  when  not 


FIG.  52.— 1  and  6,  Zoea  of  shore  crab;  2,  Trinema ;  3,  Cerco- 
monas;  4,  Stauridia ;  5,  Zoea  of  Stomapod;  7,  Lepas. 


166  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

very  serious,  for  it  was  surely  in  a  waggish 
moment  that  she  made  the  zoea  of  shore  crabs, 
Do  you  think  she  was  tempted  to  call  one 
of  these  Man,  and  have  an  end  of  her  experi- 
menting ? 


CHAPTER  XL 

THE  GREATEST  JOKE  OF  ALL. 
Boy  under  Microscope. 

A  MIOROSCOPIST  gathered  up  Ms  basket  of 
bottles,  his  dipper,  and  his  microscope  and 
went  to  spend  the  day  at  the  river  side.  He 
took  his  little  boy  along,  knowing  that  the 
child  would  enjoy  the  tramp  and  the  oppor- 
tunity of  wading  in  the  water.  The  man  set 
down  his  basket  and  went  to  work  just  where 
the  bayou  emptied  into  the  river,  so  that  he 
might  get  specimens  from  still  or  running  water 
at  his  pleasure.  He  worked  for  several  hours, 
while  the  boy  ran  along  the  shore  catching 
butterflies  or  splashing  in  the  water.  The  sci- 
entist loved  the  little  creatures  he  was  study- 
ing, and  when  he  found  familiar  ones,  or  when 
he  had  examined  others  of  them  all  he  cared  to, 
he  put  them  gently  back  into  the  brook  so  that 
they  might  live  on  unharmed.  When  he  found 
a  rare  one  or  one  that  he  wished  to  study 

167 


168  ^  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

further,  be  put  it  into  one  of  his  bottles  to 
take  home.  The  man  and  the  boy  had  often 
been  there  before,  and  there  were  animals  in 
the  bayou  that  had  more  than  once  been  terri- 
fied at  finding  themselves  on  the  slides  under 
his  microscope  and  had  been  relieved  to  find 
themselves  swimming  about  in  the  bayou  again 
sound  in  body  and  limb.  And  these  had  come 
to  wonder  what  it  all  meant,  and  what  sort  of 
a  machine  a  microscope  was  anyway.  So  they 
hung  about  near  the  shore  watching  him,  wish- 
ing they  could  look  into  that  machine  of  his, 
and  that  he  were  not  such  a  huge  being,  so 
they  could  see  the  whole  of  him  at  once. 

By  and  by  the  father  wished  to  go  around 
the  bayou  to  get  some  green  moss  growing 
at  the  water's  edge  on  the  other  side.  He 
took  a  bottle  and  set  off,  leaving  his  son  to 
guard  the  microscope  till  his  return.  The  boy 
sat  on  the  shore  beside  the  instrument  and 
watched  the  minnows  darting  about  and  the 
waves  rippling  around  his  bare  feet.  But 
the  day  was  warm  and  he  was  weary,  so  he 
soon  stretched  himself  on  the  sand  and  fell 
fast  asleep. 

Presently  a  minnow  swam  up  and,  seeing 
how  tempting  his  toes  looked,  tried  to  nibble 
them.  This  made  the  boy  draw  up  his  feet 


THE  GREATEST  JOKE  OF  ALL.  169 

and  roll  over,  pushing  the  microscope  into  the 
water,  and  rolling  into  it  himself,  till  all  his 
body  was  covered  and  even  his  brown  curls 
were  wet.  But  he  was  so  drowsy  and  the  water 
was  so  warm  that  it  did  not  waken  him. 

Now  this  was  the  very  opportunity  for  which 
the  wee  water  beings  had  been  waiting.  They 
gathered  around  in  great  glee  and  proceeded 
to  inspect  him  through  the  instrument.  But 
they  were  not  used  to  handling  microscopes, 
and  they  got  it  wrong  end  to  and  wrong  side 
up.  This,  however,  was  all  the  better  for 
them,  for,  instead  of  making  the  boy  look 
larger  it  made  him  seem  smaller,  so  they  could 
get  the  whole  of  him  into  the  microscopic  field. 
One  after  another  they  peeped  at  him.  But 
the  more  they  peeped  and  pondered,  the  more 
puzzled  they  became  as  to  what  manner  of  crea- 
ture he  might  be.  Nothing  like  him  grew  on 
mosses  or  lived  in  the  water.  They  had  seen 
parts  of  him  on  shore  at  various  times,  but, 
seeing  him  all  together,  he  looked  even  odder 
than  they  had  supposed. 

"What  manner  of  animal  is  he?"  they 
queried.  And  each  had  a  different  theory,  but 
none  could  decide.  "  He  must  be  related  to  the 
Amoeba  family,"  said  the  Arcella ;  "  for  if  you 
will  notice,  his  pseudopodia  have  buds  at  the 


170  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

ends — five  buds  on  each  pseudopod — twenty  in 
all.  Think  what  a  family !  Most  of  us  con- 
sider nine  a  large  number." 

"  He  seems  to  have  tried  to  look  like  me," 
said  the  Vaginicola,  "for  he  is  inclosed  in  a 
lorica,  and  so  was  one  that  I  once  saw  fall  out 
of  a  boat." 

"Yes,  he  is  evidently  an  attempt  at  a 
ciliatus,  for  just  look  at  the  bristles  on  his 
head  !  "  said  the  Stentor. 

"  But  he  sometimes  swims  on  his  back,  and 
that  little  one  which  comes  here  with  the  tubs 
and  the  washerwoman  always  lies  on  its  back 
kicking  its  four  legs  in  the  air  as  if  it  were  try- 
ing to  swim  like  a  shrimp,"  said  the  Branchi- 
pus.  "  And  he  has  two  eyes.  Without  doubt 
he  was  meant  for  a  shrimp,  only  he  didn't  get 
enough  legs.  He  has  but  two  pairs.  Per- 
haps that  is  because  he  is  still  in  the  nauplius 
stage." 

"I  think  what  you  call  his  front  pair  of 
legs  are  antennae,"  said  the  Daphnia.  "  They 
are  not  set  in  his  head  right,  to  be  sure,  but 
I've  seen  him  stand  on  his  hind  legs  and  move 
those  front  things  about  just  like  antennae." 

"  No,  those  are  tentacles,"  said  the  Hydra. 
"  I've  seen  him  push  food  into  his  mouth  with 
them." 


THE  GREATEST  JOKE  OF  ALL. 


171 


"  Yes,  but  I've  seen  him  walk  on  the  front 
pair  alone,"  said  the  Paramcecium.  "  One  day 
there  were  half  a  dozen  of  them  capering 
around  on  the  beach,  and  all  at  once  they 
turned  top  side  down  and  went  walking  ofE 
one  after  another  in  a  string,  each  with  his 


head  down  and  his  hind  pair  of  pseudopods 
up  in  the  air." 

"That  proves  what  I  said,"  replied  the 
Hydra.  "  He  walks  with  his  tentacles,  as  any 
sensible  being  should.  I  have  no  doubt  that 
whoever  made  him  intended  him  for  a  hydra, 
although  he  was  rather  spoiled  in  the  making." 

"  No,  he's  a  contortionist,"  said  the  Cantho- 
camptus.  "  I've  seen  the  washerwoman's  nau- 

13 


172  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

plius  flop  over  with  its  back  uppermost  and  go 
crawling  off  on  its  four  legs ;  and  it  did  a  cu- 
rious thing  as  it  crawled,  for,  instead  of  using 
its  hind  jfi^,  it  doubled  them  back  at  the  middle 
joint  and  allowed  the  lower  half  of  the  leg  to 
drag  clumsily  along,  while  it  used  the  knee 
joints  as  feet." 

"He  seems  to  have  been  poorly  put  to- 
gether in  several  respects,"  said  the  Fairy 
Shrimp.  "Think  of  having  one's  branchiae 
or  breathers  inside  the  body,  where  there's 
nothing  to  breathe!  And  then  the  absurdity 
of  having  one's  eyes  set  into  one's  head,  and 
both  looking  in  the  same  direction  ! " 

"Think  of  the  absurdity  of  having  two 
eyes  at  all!  "  said  the  Cyclops.  "Two  eyes  to 
see  one  thing !  Ridiculous  ! " 

"The  most  ridiculous  thing  I  ever  saw 
about  this  strange  animal,"  said  the  little 
Coleps,  "  was  what  happened  one  warm  summer 
day  when  several  of  his  kind  came  down  to  the 
shore  and  peeled  off  their  loricas;  and  then 
one  of  them  began  to  unscrew  one  of  his 
pseudopods  and  actually  twisted  it  off  and 
left  it  lying  on  the  sand,  while  he  and  the 
others  jumped  into  the  water  and  began  to 
kick  and  splash,  sprawling  about  like  frogs.  I 
never  had  so  much  fun  in  my  life.  I  nearly 


THE  GREATEST  JOKE  OF  ALL.  173 

went  into  hysterics  at  seeing  that  one  hind  leg 
kicking  in  the  water  while  the  other  lay  on  the 
shore  like  a  dead  wooden  thing.  I  had  to  hold 
my  sides  for  fear  my  hoops  would  burst  and 
I'd  die  laughing." 

"  How  awkward  to  have  pseudopodia  which 
get  broken  off  and  have  to  be  replaced  by 
wooden  ones !  It's  a  pity  he  doesn't  have  a 
shell  to  draw  them  into,"  said  the  Arcella. 

"The  worst  of  it  is  that  he  carries  the  hard 
part  or  shell  of  him  inside,  instead  of  having 
it  outside  to  protect  the  soft  part  of  his  body, 
as  we  do,"  said  the  Cypris. 

"And  his  mastax  is  at  the  surface  of  him 
instead  of  where  the  food  is  to  be  digested," 
said  the  Rotifer. 

"  He  seems  to  be  hollow  like  the  Vorticellae," 
said  a  Bell  Animalcule.  "But  he  isn't  pretty 
nor  cup-shaped,  and  what  can  he  want  of  two 
stems  ?  " 

"You  are  right  about  being  hollow.  His 
head,  at  least,  is,"  said  the  Euplotes,  "  for  I've 
seen  several  of  these  animals  sit  on  a  log  and 
open  a  slit  which  they  have  in  the  side  of 
their  heads  and  set  clappers  going  in  the  great 
hollow  ball;  making  a  ludicrous  cackling  and 
croaking  like  the  noises  made  by  frogs.  The 
oddest  part  of  it  was  that  these  noises  seemed 


174:  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

to  be  very  interesting  to  them.  When  one 
croaked,  the  others  would  turn  their  heads  to 
listen  and  would  watch  his  clapper  wagging, 
and  then  another  would  croak,  and  they  would 
turn  to  him ;  and  then  another  would  croak — 
one  after  another,  almost  without  cessation ; 
sometimes  two  or  three  at  once,  and  every  one 
so  attentive  and  interested !  I  suppose  it  is 
some  sort  of  game  similar  to  that  with  which 
the  frogs  amuse  themselves  of  evenings  in  the 
spring.  But  it  is  such  a  very  comical  perform- 
ance, and  the  noises  they  make  are  so  varied 
and  ridiculous,  that  it  is  more  entertaining  than 
any  frog  concert.  I  should  be  inclined  to  think 
these  animals  were  related  to  me,  because  they 
can  run  backward ;  but  the  fact  that  they  re- 
semble frogs  in  the  noises  they  make  and  in 
their  manner  of  swimming  seems  to  indicate 
that  they  are  more  closely  related  to  the  frog 
family.  But  I  confess  that  I  can't  decide  what 
they  are." 

"  Well,  friends,"  said  the  Rotifer,  who  was 
acknowledged  to  be  the  most  brainy  one  of  the 
company,  "this  animal  is  such  a  jumble,  it  is 
clearly  impossible  to  classify  him.  I  can  find 
two  and  only  two  explanations  for  him.  You 
see,  he  has  some  points  of  resemblance  to  each 
one  of  us,  and  indeed  seems  to  be  related  to 


THE  GREATEST  JOKE  OF  ALL.  175 

all  of  us ;  but  every  part  of  his  body  is  either 
imperfect  in  itself  or  is  imperfectly  located. 

"  Now,  first,  it  may  be  that  the  Creator  used 
him  to  experiment  upon,  and  put  the  parts  of 
his  body  together  to  see  how  they  would  work, 
and  what  alterations  he  should  make  when  he 
came  to  create  us.  He  may  be  a  sort  of  trial 
creature,  made  before  the  real  work  of  creation 
began. 

"  Or,  secondly,  he  may  be  a  conglomerate  of 
all  the  parts  that  were  left  after  making  us 
— a  batch  of  odds  and  ends  thrown  together 
at  haphazard,  with  some  putty  to  hold  them 
wherever  they  happened  to  stick — a  creature 
made  just  for  the  fun  of  the  thing ;  for — and  I 
hope  you  will  excuse  my  frankness — but  some- 
times when  I  look  at  some  of  you — of  us,  I 
mean — it  seems  to  me  that  the  Creator  must 
have  a  vein  of  humor  in  him  which  cropped 
out  once  in  a  while  in  his  work.  And  perhaps 
when  he  finished  making  us  and  had  completed 
the  important  part  of  creation,  he  was  tired 
and  felt  the  need  of  a  little  relaxation,  and 
so  he  just  threw  this  creature  together  to  see 
what  a  ridiculous  thing  he  could  make,  so  as 
to  have  something  to  laugh  at." 

Which  is  it  ? 


PKONOUNCING  GLOSSAKY. 


ACTINOPHRYS  (ak-ti-nflfrfs). 
Amoeba,  pi.  bse  (a-me'ba,  pi.  be). 
Amphileptus  (am-fl-l&p'tiis). 
Arcella,  pi.  se  (ar-seTla). 

"       a-cu'mi-na-ta,  pointed. 

"       dSn-ta'ta,  toothed. 

"      ml-tra'ta,  miter-shaped. 
Aeronaut  (a'Sr-6-nat).     A  balloonist. 
Alchemist  (al'ke-mlst).     An  ancient  chemist. 
Aquatic  (a-kwat'ik).     Living  in  water. 
Atom  (at'ilm).     The  smallest  particle  of  matter  that  can  enter 

into  combination. 

Articulated  (ar-tik'u-lat-8d).     Jointed. 
Bacillaria  (bas-i-la'ri-a). 

u        (paradoxa).     Not  to  be  expected ;  contradictory. 
Brachiopoda  (brak-I-Sp'o-da). 
Branchipus  (brang-kl'piis). 
Branchiopod  (brang'ki-6-p6d). 
Branchiopoda  (brang-ki-5p'6-da). 
Canthocamptus  (can-tho-camp'tus). 
Cercomonas  (ser-ko-mo'n^s). 

Chary bdis  (ka-rib'dis).     A  fabled  whirlpool  near  Sicily. 
Chilodon  cucullulus  (kl'lo-don  ku-kul-lu'lus). 
Ciliata  (sil-I-a'ta). 

Clathrulina  elegans  (klath-ro-li'na  61-e  ganz). 

177 


1Y8  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

Coleps  (ko'lgps). 

Cothurnia  (ko-ther'nl-a). 

Cyclops  (slTdtips). 

Cypris  (sl'pris). 

Carapace  (kar'a-pas).    The  shell  covering  the  back  of  crusta- 
ceans. 

Chitinous  (kl'tin-vls).     Horny;  the  substance  incasing  insects 
and  crustaceans. 

Daphnia  (d&f'ni-a). 

Desmid  (deVmid). 

Diaptomus  (dl-ap'to-mus). 

Dipter  (dip'ter).     A  two-winged  insect;  a  fly;  a  mosquito. 

Debris  (da'bre).     Rubbish,  driftwood. 

Dorsal  (dor'sal).     Pertaining  to  the  back. 

Epistylis  (ep-i-stl'Us). 

Euglena  (u-gle'na). 

"       (tri-que'ta),  three-sided. 
"       (san-guin'e-a),  red. 
"       (vi-ri'dis),  green. 

Euplotes  (u-plo'tgs). 

Eliminated  (e-lim'i-nat  8d).     Caused  to  disappear. 

Encysted  (gn-sist'Sd).     Inclosed  in  a  sac  or  cyst. 

Environment  (Sn-vl'rftn-me'nt).      The   surrounding  conditions 
by  which  .living  things  are  modified. 

Extemporized  (Sks-tSm'po-rizd).     Made  off-hand  or  under  ne- 
cessity. 

Exuding  (Sks-u'ding).     Discharging  through  the  pores. 

Flagellata  (flag-81-la'ta). 

Function  (fiink'shun).     The  appropriate  action  of  any  organ. 

Frustule  (frtis'tul).     The  shell  of  a  diatom. 

Genealogical  (je"n-e-a-16j'i-kal).     Pertaining  to  the  history  of 
ancestors  and  their  children. 

Hydra  (hl'dra). 

Hereditary  (he-rSdl-ta-ri).     Inherited  ;  descended  from  father 
to  child. 

Hypnocyst  (hip'no-sist).     A  slumber  sac  ;  a  cyst  in  which  pro- 
tozoans lie  dormant. 


PRONOUNCING  GLOSSARY.  179 

Infusoria  (m-fu-s6'ri-a).  Protozoans  found  in  vegetable  infu- 
sions. 

Incipient  (m-sip'i-e'nt).  Beginning  to  be.  (This  word  must 
not  be  confounded  with  "insipient,"  stupid.) 

Inherent  (m-her'e'nt).    Inseparably  associated  or  involved  with. 

Jardiniere  (zhar-de-nyar').    An  ornamental  receptacle  for  plants. 

Joie  de  me  (zhwa-d'-ve').     Joy  of  life. 

Larva  (lar'va).  The  wormlike  young  insect  before  it  has 
wings. 

Locomotor  (lo-ko-mo'ter).     Pertaining  to  movement. 

Molecule  (m61'e-kul).     An  invisible  particle  of  matter. 

Masticating  (mas'tl-kat-ing).     Chewing. 

Neuropter  (nu-r6p'ter).     An  insect  with  four  net-veined  wings. 

Noctiluca  (nSk-tl-lu'ka). 

Nucleus  (nu'kle-us).  A  kernel ;  a  central  point  about  which 
matter  is  gathered. 

(Esophagus  (e-sSf'a-giis).     The  gullet. 

Olfactory  (51-fak'to-ry).     Connected  with  the  sense  of  smell. 

Paramcecium  (par-a-me'sl-um). 

Protozoan  (pro-to-zo'an).  One  of  the  lowest  or  single-celled 
animals. 

Pterodina  (ter-6-di'na). 

Pyxicola  (pik-sik'6-la). 

Polarity  (po-lar'i-ty).  The  condition  which  exhibits  contrasted 
properties  corresponding  to  contrasted  parts,  as  attraction 
and  repulsion  in  opposite  parts  of  a  magnet. 

Prehension  (pre-he"n'shun).     The  act  of  grasping. 

Progenitor  (pro-jeVl-ter).     A  forefather. 

Quiescent  (kwi-eVsgnt).     In  a  state  of  repose. 

Rotifer  (ro'ti-fer). 

Rotifera  (ro-tl-fe'ra). 

Recapitulating  (re-ka-plt'u-lat-ing).     Summing  up. 

Refracting  (re-frakt'ing).     Bending  from  the  direct  course. 

Spirogyra  (spi-ro-ji'ra).  A  fresh-water  plant  in  which  are 
spiral  bands  of  green. 

Stauridia  (sta-ridl-a). 

Stentor  (stSn'tor). 


180  IN  BROOK  AND  BAYOU. 

Stephanoceros  (st&f-a-nds'e-rtis). 

Strephuris  (strM-u'ris). 

Silicious  (si-lish'iis).     Made  of  quartz,  as  sand. 

Thuricola  (thu-ric'o-la). 

Trachelocerca  (tra-ke-lo-ser'ka). 

Thoracic  (tho-ras'ik). 

Vaginicola  (vaj-i-nik-d'la). 

Vampyrella  (vam-pl-reTla). 

Vorticella  (v6r-ti-seTla). 

Ventral  (vgn'tral).     The  under  side  of  an  animal. 

Viscera  (vis'se-ra).      The  internal  organs,  especially  those  of 

the  abdomen. 
Viviparous  (vi-vip'a-riis).     Bringing  forth  the  young  alive;  not 

exuding  the  egg  before  hatching. 


(2) 


THE    END. 


